Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AS PSI they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. AS PSI have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Félix Noubara 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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
A muscle injury sidelines Joseph Waris for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. AS PSI will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“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 The request is on a desk at AS PSI, and it is not being withdrawn.
Brahim Goudja 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 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at AS PSI, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 31 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fabrice Djimhoué 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.
Brahim Goudja 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.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. AS PSI will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Félix Noubara 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Gabkala Daba has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. AS PSI have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fabrice Djimhoué 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.
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Brahim Goudja 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 Aug 2028
Joël Djingar has improved at 25, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
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 1, 52 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Félix Noubara 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: US Moursal will make the call about Noël Allaramadji this week. AS PSI have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Brahim Goudja 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 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 AS PSI 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 AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Sammy Kiplangat has come up in conversations AS PSI were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
In brief
SquadWords at AS PSI training over how hard people work
SquadBrahim Goudja has become a man the manager trusts
“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 PSI, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AS PSI they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Brahim Goudja 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.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Félix Noubara 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.
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.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and AS PSI have had the benefit of it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Félix Noubara 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.
4 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
Brahim Goudja 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 name of Muhammad Ubaydullayev has come up in conversations AS PSI were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Félix Noubara 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.
“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 PSI, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: US Moursal have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Noël Allaramadji. The answer from AS PSI has not changed — yet.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Félix Noubara 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.
Nobody at AS PSI 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AS PSI can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AS PSI have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The offer from AS Etat Major for Muhammad Ubaydullayev 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.
Brahim Goudja 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 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AS PSI have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The offer from Gazelle for Marius Adoum 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 AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Brahim Goudja 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.
Nassar Koulelengar 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.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brahim Goudja 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 AS PSI 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.
“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 PSI, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marius Adoum will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AS PSI the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Nassar Koulelengar 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.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brahim Goudja 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 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Noël Allaramadji will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AS PSI the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 May 2028
Félix Noubara 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.
Nobody at AS PSI 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.
Brahim Goudja 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Joël Djingar, and the manager let it.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sammy Kiplangat 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 AS PSI 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 AS PSI is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Brahim Goudja 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 Apr 2028
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Félix Noubara 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.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.60 for the rest of it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Noël Allaramadji will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AS PSI 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 AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Brahim Goudja 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 words a physio says slowly. 15 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brahim Goudja 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 AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 22 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Marius Adoum did not need any: 8.37, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Marius Adoum 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.
21 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 29 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marius Adoum will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AS PSI the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Nassar Koulelengar 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 Mar 2028
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brahim Goudja 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AS PSI know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The words a physio says slowly. 36 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Position 1, 48 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 AS PSI 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 AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Brahim Goudja 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.
Brahim Goudja 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.
Three points for AS PSI, 1‑0 the final word against Renaissance in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Félix Noubara 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 AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Brahim Goudja 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Joël Djingar will call it something else in private.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Issa Hassaballah scored in the 86th minute, CotonTchad had already begun thinking about the journey home, and AS PSI took the lot.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AS PSI they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Nassar Koulelengar 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brahim Goudja 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Noël Allaramadji will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AS PSI 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 AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Félix Noubara 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 instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
5 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Nassar Koulelengar 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 Feb 2028
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brahim Goudja 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.
8.56. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AS PSI they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: AS DGSSIE have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Sammy Kiplangat. The answer from AS PSI has not changed — yet.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Brahim Goudja 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.
Nobody at AS PSI 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.
17 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.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Brahim Goudja 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.
Match22 Jan 2028
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for AS PSI. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Azizbek Usmonov. 1‑0 against Gazelle, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mahamat Adam Ali, and the manager let it.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Félix Noubara 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.
8.03. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Position 1, 33 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.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Brahim Goudja 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.
Joël Djingar 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.
Nassar Koulelengar 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brahim Goudja 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.
Match8 Jan 2028
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for AS PSI. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
17 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Two goals and a mark of 8.49 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. AS PSI will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Brahim Goudja 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.
Aiglons made AS PSI work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Félix Noubara 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.
15 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Brahim Goudja 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.
Joël Djingar 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.
Two goals and a mark of 10.00 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Nassar Koulelengar 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.
It finished 3‑1, and it was Mahamat Adam Ali’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to AS PSI.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brahim Goudja 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 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Félix Noubara 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.
Nobody at AS PSI 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.
Nassar Koulelengar 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 Dec 2027
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brahim Goudja 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Fabrice Djimhoué is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
14 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Brahim Goudja 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.
Joël Djingar 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.
Position 2, 16 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.
13 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Brahim Goudja 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.
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Félix Noubara 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 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.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Brahim Goudja 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.
Azizbek Usmonov 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 club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and AS PSI know it.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. AS PSI scored in the 104th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mahamat Adam Ali provided it, and the 8.59 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
28 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brahim Goudja 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. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS PSI 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.
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.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Nassar Koulelengar 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brahim Goudja 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. 33 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Brahim Goudja 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.
It needed Issa Hassaballah to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Elect Sport, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 40 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Brahim Goudja 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.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. AS PSI will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
16 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 47 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Brahim Goudja 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Adam Abakar is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Hassan Tokindang 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Saleh Ndoram 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Brahim Abakar 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.
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 5 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brahim Goudja 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 AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Brahim Goudja has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
In brief
SquadFélix Noubara falls out with a teammate over standards
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Nassar Koulelengar 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.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brahim Goudja 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 AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Brahim Goudja 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The offer from AS Etat Major for Bark Abdramane 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Bark Abdramane is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AS PSI is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AS PSI can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AS PSI they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Noël Allaramadji is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The name of Bark Abdramane has come up in conversations AS PSI were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Issa Hassaballah is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
At 31 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brahim Goudja 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 AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
In brief
SquadSammy Kiplangat falls out with a teammate over standards
“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 PSI, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Sammy Kiplangat commits to AS PSI for another 4 years.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brahim Goudja 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.
“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 PSI, and it is not being withdrawn.
The name of Bark Abdramane has come up in conversations AS PSI were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Restu Akbar will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AS PSI 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 AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Brahim Goudja 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.
In brief
SquadBrahim Goudja has become a man the manager trusts
Position 2, 38 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.
Brahim Goudja 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 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Félix Noubara 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 given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and AS PSI know it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Issa Hassaballah signs something — a contract at AS PSI or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Brahim Goudja 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; AS PSI are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Nobody at AS PSI 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 offer from AS Algoy for Bark Abdramane 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AS PSI can pretend not to have heard.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. AS PSI will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Restu Akbar has agreed terms with Gazelle for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brahim Goudja 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.
Elect Sport go through and AS PSI go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
The offer from FC Diarra for Mahamat Adam Ali 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 terraces28 Jun 2027
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 9 of the 25 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
The name of Bark Abdramane has come up in conversations AS PSI were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AS PSI 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 AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Wigi Pratama 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.
38 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brahim Goudja 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 AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AS PSI, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bark Abdramane signs something — a contract at AS PSI or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Bark Abdramane is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AS PSI can pretend not to have heard.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Brahim Goudja 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.
Joël Djingar 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.
Brahim Goudja 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 Jun 2027
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wigi Pratama 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 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 May 2027
Brahim Goudja 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.
Nassar Koulelengar 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brahim Goudja 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.
“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 PSI, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” AS PSI may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brahim Goudja 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 AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AS PSI can pretend not to have heard.
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
Squad3 May 2027
Brahim Goudja 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.
Aditya Warman 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 AS PSI 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, 38 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.
Brahim Goudja 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Félix Noubara 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.
Nassar Koulelengar 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brahim Goudja 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AS PSI can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Brahim Goudja 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Issa Hassaballah 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.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Galactik spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
“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 PSI, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nassar Koulelengar 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AS PSI will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Brahim Goudja 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
19 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and AS PSI know it.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. AS Algoy kept coming because nothing stopped them, and AS PSI will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AS PSI will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AS PSI have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 PSI, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brahim Goudja 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AS PSI 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 AS PSI, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AS PSI will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AS PSI can pretend not to have heard.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brahim Goudja 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 AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Bark Abdramane 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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Renaissance? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AS PSI will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gabkala Daba, and the manager let it.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Haroun Abakar 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AS PSI will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Nassar Koulelengar 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.
At 23 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.
A 1‑0 win over CotonTchad, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Haroun Abakar 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AS PSI 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 AS PSI, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Brahim Goudja 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AS PSI will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Brahim Goudja 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.
A performance of 8.19 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Félix Noubara 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AS PSI know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AS PSI will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Mahamat Adam Ali scored in the 87th minute, US Moursal had already begun thinking about the journey home, and AS PSI took the lot.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.87 for the rest of it.
The fee is $14.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Stars Jeunes Talents drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces1 Feb 2027
AS PSI spend $14.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $14.0K for Ezechiel Mahamat, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
“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 PSI, and it is not being withdrawn.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AS PSI will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer from Afrique Foot Elite for Mahamat Adam Ali 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 terraces25 Jan 2027
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 5 of the 22 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brahim Goudja 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.
Félix Noubara 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 a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Bark Abdramane 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.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Mahamat Adam Ali will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at AS PSI escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AS PSI 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 AS PSI, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
8.11. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Félix Noubara 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.
Marked 8.01 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AS PSI will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Nassar Koulelengar 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bark Abdramane, and the manager let it.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Haroun Abakar 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.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
It needed Mahamat Adam Ali to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Foullah Edifice, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AS PSI know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AS PSI will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and AS PSI have had the benefit of it.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Gabkala Daba 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Brahim Goudja 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Brahim Goudja 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.
Marked 8.66 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gabkala Daba signs something — a contract at AS PSI or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AS PSI will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AS PSI can pretend not to have heard.
The 88th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Ali Issa Blagué decided nobody was going anywhere. AS Etat Major had no time left to answer.
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.
Brahim Goudja 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 a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
7.73, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. AS PSI had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wigi Pratama 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AS PSI will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AS PSI can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Issa Hassaballah 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.
19 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Player ratingsA defender's afternoon for Gabkala Daba
20Edition
The AS PSI Chronicle
14 Dec 2026
From our football correspondentUneasy
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brahim Goudja 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 AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. AS PSI told Nassar Koulelengar something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 20 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Félix Noubara 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Bark Abdramane is the division's best young player this month
At 20 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. AS PSI will try very hard not to make too much of it.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Renaissance defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AS PSI can pretend not to have heard.
Brahim Goudja 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 club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
At 23 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.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. AS PSI have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Position 11 and 6 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The terraces23 Nov 2026
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 6 of the 18 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at AS PSI can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Brahim Goudja 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.
Brahim Goudja 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.
“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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wigi Pratama 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 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.
In brief
Player ratingsA defender's afternoon for Joël Djingar
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Muhammad Ubaydullayev: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Marius Adoum obliged against AS Etat Major. 2‑2 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is AS PSI.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Félix Noubara, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.62
A mark of 7.62 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 20 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.
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.
14 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 instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at AS PSI training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brahim Goudja 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Abdoulaye Hissein 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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against US Moursal? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Two goals and a mark of 8.42 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AS PSI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mahamat Adam Ali. 2‑0 against Gazelle, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Wigi Pratama 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.
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AS PSI know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Brahim Goudja is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Brahim Goudja 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Joël Djingar has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at AS PSI can tell you which week it ends in.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AS PSI, and both men came out saying it was fine.