“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation ES Setif are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Squad9 Nov 2026
The division's best last weekend was a ES Setif man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Ahmed Jafeli was the best thing in any of them.
Nobody at ES Setif 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.
A brace, and Riad Benayad takes the afternoon — 7.99
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Riad Benayad provided it, and the 7.99 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
1 for Mudasiru Salifu, marked 7.86, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Dramane Kamagaté 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.
6 goals in one match, Riad Benayad on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of ES Setif and ES Ben Aknoun.
He is 20 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ES Setif this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.83 on the card, and the ES Setif support went home talking about one name.
Squad26 Oct 2026
12 new faces, and ES Setif 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.
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Mohamed Boukerma's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 2‑2 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
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.
In brief
SquadA ES Setif teenager takes the young player award
Yanis Hamache 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.
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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at ES Setif, and 1 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Yanis Hamache 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Abdelhak Belmadi after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
It is a strip of cloth and it decides nothing on a Saturday. It still tells the dressing room exactly whose opinion the manager values, which is the whole point 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 ES Setif this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
12 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Merouane Zerrouki’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and ES Setif needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.81 on the card, and the ES Setif support went home talking about one name.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Abdelhak Belmadi, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 15 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
USM Alger next, and one man in the ES Setif dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Dramane Kamagaté 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.
JS Saoura held the lead for 1 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. ES Setif answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
ASO Chlef next, and one man in the ES Setif dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Nobody at ES Setif is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
The offer from MC El Bayadh for Imad Eddine Azzi 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 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.
He is 21 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.
“I did not go to ES Setif to sit and watch. I want to come back to USM Alger and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Zakaria Draoui's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al Nasr have kept their man, and ES Setif go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 21 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what ES Setif can pretend not to have heard.
ES Setif had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Santos, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Dramane Kamagaté 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Mohamed Hamek has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The plan went upstairs and came back down. Nothing about that will make a headline anywhere else, and everybody who works at the training ground will remember it for years.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at FC Metz is saying, and nobody at ES Setif is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ES Setif this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
ES Setif have gone to USM Alger with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ramy Slimani 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. Rachid Benaceur 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. Ismail Zeffane 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. FCSB have kept their man, and ES Setif go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 ES Setif this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
ES Setif have made the call to USM Alger. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at ES Setif, another week without a signature from Mudasiru Salifu.
USM Alger asked and Sharjah said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The offer from ES Mostaganem for Abdelmoumen Sifour 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 phone has started ringing about Dramane Kamagaté again, and this time the name on the line is ES Setif. USM Alger are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at USM Alger training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zakaria Draoui 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.
Ghiles Guenaoui 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.