Marked for Ilyes Chetti
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match9 Jan 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 17 matches without defeat is a foundation USM Alger did not have in the autumn.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market11 Jan 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at USM Alger, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market11 Jan 2027
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Achref Abada had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market11 Jan 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. USM Alger have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Up for the corner, and Glody Likonza delivers — 7.42
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Glody Likonza scored, was marked 7.42, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Market11 Jan 2027
The chase for Mohamed Boukerma ended with $970.0K changing hands and ES Setif out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Everything agreed with Smouha, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 40. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market4 Jan 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at USM Alger, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match30 Dec 2026
Sid Ali Lakroum wins it after the whistle should have gone
108 minutes played. Sid Ali Lakroum found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and ES Ben Aknoun went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Match2 Jan 2027
There were 88 minutes on the clock and ES Setif had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and USM Alger did not stop to explain themselves.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Mohamed El Amine Ramdaoui did not need any: 7.84, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad4 Jan 2027
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 USM Alger have had the benefit of it.
Match2 Jan 2027
USM Alger cannot stop winning
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.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match12 Dec 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against USM Khenchela, and it could have been more.
Match12 Dec 2026
Whatever happens, USM Alger do not lose
12 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Dramane Kamagaté, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.42
A mark of 8.42 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Age has not caught Farid Boulaya yet — 8.07
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.07 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad14 Dec 2026
He is 21, he is averaging 7.08, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Match12 Dec 2026
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Islam Merili in the middle of it, and USM Khenchela unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Ilyes Chetti was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.32. 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.
Match14 Dec 2026
USM Alger at the halfway mark
Half the programme played, position 5, 27 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match5 Dec 2026
Whatever happens, USM Alger do not lose
11 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
No sign of nerves from Dramane Kamagaté at 21 — 8.16
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Dramane Kamagaté did not need any: 8.16, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.36, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Zakaria Draoui 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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Loan watch7 Dec 2026
“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 USM Alger, and 0 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
Match5 Dec 2026
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Ilyes Chetti named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Ilyes Chetti is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Achref Abada gets it from the manager
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Nov 2026
Zakaria Draoui damages knee ligaments — 37 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 37 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.
Match14 Nov 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation USM Alger did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad16 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at USM Alger this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A season average of 7.00 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. USM Alger know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Match14 Nov 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Ilyes Chetti’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to USM Alger.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Ilyes Chetti was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.22. 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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Abdelkader Bellahcene could afford to be generous.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mohamed Idir Hadid, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
103 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. USM Alger lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at USM Alger this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Haithem Loucif dropped after a run of poor form
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.
Looking ahead21 Sep 2026
A test against the best for USM Alger
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 MC Alger.
Market21 Sep 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Safi Eddine Atmania has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at USM Alger.
Match19 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. ES Setif will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 Aug 2026
126 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. USM Alger lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market31 Aug 2026
ASO Chlef come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and USM Alger did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The offer went to Al-Ittihad 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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
USM Alger had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Vasco da Gama, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Zakaria Draoui and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
$84.0K was the most the club would pay and Paradou were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.