The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Dynamo Douala people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The deal with Kano Pillars is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Vittel Feumi Yanou 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.
Rivers United 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.
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 no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Joel Kunde 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. Michel Kameni 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Karl Mbarga 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. Edgar Kunde 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.
Dynamo Douala 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.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Muttaka Musa is in the works
SquadQuestions about Pierre Ikong on the training pitch
Vittel Feumi Yanou 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.
Still no offer on the table, and Vittel Feumi Yanou’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Stade Malien 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.