It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at JS Saoura this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Riyane Akacem 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at JS Saoura, and it is not being withdrawn.
Riyane Akacem 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mohamed Achraf Kaddouri is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Alimi Sikiru’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to JS Saoura.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Ismail Saadi 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what JS Saoura can pretend not to have heard.
Constant Wayou 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 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 JS Saoura know it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at JS Saoura training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Riyane Akacem 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.
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Constant Wayou was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.31. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at JS Saoura this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 25 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.
A brace, and Alimi Sikiru takes the afternoon — 8.59
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alimi Sikiru provided it, and the 8.59 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Constant Wayou 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.
CS Constantine made JS Saoura work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Alimi Sikiru 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.
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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at JS Saoura training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alimi Sikiru 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.
Marked 8.02 — 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.
“I watch every JS Saoura game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at MC Oran runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at JS Saoura this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Constant Wayou 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.
1 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Abdelkader Ounas 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.
Three points for JS Saoura, 1‑0 the final word against ES Setif in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Ismail Saadi 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at JS Saoura, another week without a signature from Timothy Zechariah.
In brief
BoardroomNo investment in the facilities at JS Saoura
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at JS Saoura this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at JS Saoura training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ismail Saadi 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Kamel Belmiloud has his answer from JS Saoura; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Eduardo Acosta arrives at 35 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at JS Saoura would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
The offer from MC Alger for Ismail Saadi 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Timothy Zechariah has just signed for JS Saoura, and for once the answer mattered.
The phone has started ringing about Abdenour Barkat again, and this time the name on the line is JS Kabylie. JS Saoura are listening politely and promising nothing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at JS Saoura this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at JS Saoura training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alimi Sikiru 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.
Constant Wayou 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 interest is real enough to have reached print. JS Saoura have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Ismail Saadi 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at JS Saoura has been clear about where Constant Wayou stands, which is more than many ever get.