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
Ilyes Chetti 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Islam Merili’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and USM Alger needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Rayane Abdelmadjid Mahrouz is on it.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at USM Alger that is a harder question to answer.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at USM Alger. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Romaric Etonde provided it, and the 8.81 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Hocine Dehiri commits to USM Alger for another 3 years.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at USM Alger training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilyes Chetti 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.
“I watch every USM Alger game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at USM Khenchela runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
At 21 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Romaric Etonde. 2‑0 against JS Saoura, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Something was said to Haithem Loucif and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Words at USM Alger training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilyes Chetti 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.
15 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Bilal Haddad was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the USM Alger dressing room was either.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ahmed Khaldi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Oussama Benbout signs something — a contract at USM Alger or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
1 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 7.40 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.
A mark of 7.87 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at USM Alger training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilyes Chetti 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.
At 21 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 2‑1, Bilal Haddad could afford to be generous.
Antoine Hoppenot 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 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.
Zakaria Draoui 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.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Ilyes Chetti 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 were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Bilal Haddad after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
Antoine Hoppenot is 36 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at USM Alger training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilyes Chetti 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Raouf Benguit was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.30. 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 dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Bilal Haddad kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
$110.0K was the most the club would pay and MC Alger 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilyes Chetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Stade Brestois have kept their man, and USM Alger go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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’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 Bilal Haddad left the room before anybody could ask which.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at USM Alger, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Glody Likonza
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 16 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $111.2K — a club that wants Oualaa Moundhir Bouzekri enough to be asked twice.
The offer went to MC Alger 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Ilyes Chetti 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 now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Kavala have kept their man, and USM Alger go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at USM Alger than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Paradou in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
In brief
The dugoutAhmed Khaldi knocks on the manager's door
The offer went to Orlando Pirates 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.
The offer from MC Oran for Rayane Abdelmadjid Mahrouz 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $105.7K — a club that wants Yacine Goudjil enough to be asked twice.
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.
The phone has started ringing about Safi Eddine Atmania again, and this time the name on the line is CS Constantine. USM Alger are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at USM Alger training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilyes Chetti 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 most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. USM Alger will quote 18 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
USM Alger have made the call to AS Saint-Etienne. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.