It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gazelle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Saleh Abba after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
At 15 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Abdramane Ndoram will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Gazelle escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Koffi Ayivi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Osée Natoyoum, and the manager let it.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 2‑4 defeat, delivered by Saleh Abba to a room that had heard them before.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Renaissance.
Whether it was the goalkeeper or the ten in front of him is the argument that will fill every conversation in town this week. 1 saves does not settle it either way.
In brief
SquadA Gazelle teenager takes the young player award
0‑3 to AS PSI, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Position 11 and 15 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Gazelle have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Brahim Sabaouni was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is no 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gazelle can pretend not to have heard.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.35 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Gazelle close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 0 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gazelle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
8.08. 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Adoum Fachir
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
SquadThe division's best last weekend was a Gazelle man
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
0‑3 to Stars Jeunes Talents, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
0-5, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
Brahim Sabaouni and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Gazelle training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Koffi Ayivi 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: US Moursal keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
7 matches without a win, and then this, against US Moursal. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Gazelle training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Koffi Ayivi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Position 11 and 9 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Gazelle can tell you which week it ends in.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gazelle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Mahamat Mbaiguedem is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Koffi Ayivi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gazelle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Saleh Abba left the room before anybody could ask which.
Gazelle have made the call to US Moursal. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gazelle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Gazelle training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marius Adoum is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
4 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.
Koffi Ayivi 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.
Mohamed Chennah scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Aiglons, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Saleh Abba to a room that had heard them before.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
6 goals in one match, Brahim Sabaouni on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Gazelle and AS Etat Major.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Koffi Ayivi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Hassan Haroun 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Abdoulaye Bechir 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.
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 hardest thing about being 15 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Abdramane Ndoram did not need any: 7.64, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Hassane Boudina has come out of that comparison in the side, and Gazelle have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Saleh Abba chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against AS Etat Major in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Valdo Junior Bilunga and Gazelle agree another 1 years.
Osée Natoyoum 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.
0‑3 against Renaissance, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Gazelle have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
At 23 he has taken a place rather than been given one, and somebody else has to find something to say about it. Gazelle have a decision that made itself.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Abdramane Souleymane trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Koffi Ayivi 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.
Renaissance arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.
Squad16 Nov 2026
The division's best last weekend was a Gazelle man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Hassane Boudina was the best thing in any of them.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Gazelle know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Gazelle and AS DGSSIE in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Marius Adoum 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Marius Mahamat 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.
Marked 7.54 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Koffi Ayivi is living that version at Gazelle, and it tends to show in the first month.
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Mohamed Chennah did not need any: 7.94, 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 Gazelle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The young player of the month award goes to a 15-year-old at Gazelle who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Osée Natoyoum is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Saleh Abba chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mohamed Chennah provided it, and the 8.71 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
César Abaya 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mohamed Chennah. 3‑1 against Galactik, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Saleh Abba could afford to be generous.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Gazelle have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
The words a physio says slowly. 16 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of 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 Gazelle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 42, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
“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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Saleh Abba left the room before anybody could ask which.
Successful dribbles: 14. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gazelle lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Osée Natoyoum 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Moussa Abba is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
8 new faces, and Gazelle are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Stars Jeunes Talents next, and one man in the Gazelle dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
2 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 8.69 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gazelle lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Osée Natoyoum 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Valdo Junior Bilunga and Gazelle agree another 1 years.
He is 15 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
César Abaya 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against US Moursal in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Gazelle lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
César Abaya 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Gazelle know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
SquadQuestions about Abdramane Abba on the training pitch
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Abdramane Allamine 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
8 new faces, and Gazelle are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gazelle can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 20 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Gazelle until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gazelle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Abdelaziz Makine signs something — a contract at Gazelle or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A decision that decides nothing on the pitch and everything in the room. The manager has said, without saying it, whose voice he wants heard when his own is not there.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $42.5K — a club that wants Oumar Haroun enough to be asked twice.
The deal with AS Etat Major 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.
The offer went to AS Etat Major this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud 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 Gazelle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Gazelle offered $50.0K; US Moursal said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
There is a particular relief in a club addressing the thing its own crowd has been shouting about. Hassan Haroun arrives for exactly that job, and now he has to do it.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Careers are short and most of them do not end in a deal like this one. Hassan Haroun has just secured his, and nobody at Gazelle begrudges him it — out loud.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $54.8K — a club that wants Brahim Souleymane enough to be asked twice.
The offer went to Stars Jeunes Talents this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Gazelle asked and US Moursal said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Gazelle know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The offer went to US Moursal this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Abbas Maigué 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.
Stars Jeunes Talents wanted more than $37.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Gazelle have made the call to US Moursal. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad17 Aug 2026
5 new faces, and Gazelle are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Gazelle will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Idriss Mbaiguedem arrives from AS Etat Major with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
A season-long audition: US Moursal still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Gazelle's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
The deal with AS Etat Major 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Stars Jeunes Talents keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
César Abaya 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. US Moursal have kept their man, and Gazelle go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Abdramane Ndoram 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Abdoulaye Hissein is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Mahamat Doungous 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. Abdramane Ngaradoumbe is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Mohamed Chennah is living that version at Gazelle, and it tends to show in the first month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gazelle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Still no offer on the table, and Hassane Boudina’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.