It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Antoine Berger has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Kheiredine Merzougui 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at MB Rouissat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pierre Akono 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.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Alladoum Kolimba's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. MB Rouissat lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at MB Rouissat is running low.
Position 14 and 6 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MB Rouissat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Pierre Akono 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.
Nobody at MB Rouissat 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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against JS Kabylie? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. MB Rouissat lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a 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 MB Rouissat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Pierre Akono 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.
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. MB Rouissat lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
7 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kheiredine Merzougui and MB Rouissat agree another 2 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MB Rouissat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. MB Rouissat lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at MB Rouissat can tell you which week it ends in.
Kheiredine Merzougui 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Oussama Gatal has improved at 30, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
61 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. MB Rouissat lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason MB Rouissat will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Destaing Sikoula is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The words a physio says slowly. 76 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.
Position 16 and 18 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason MB Rouissat will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
114 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. MB Rouissat lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have supported clubs like this one. I know what a bad Saturday feels like here.” The new man starts with nothing behind him and everything in front of him.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason MB Rouissat will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The chase for Ahmed Alili ended with $56.0K changing hands and Olympique Akbou out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Elias Ochiobi 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.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Ahmed Alili from Olympique Akbou for $56.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at MB Rouissat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pierre Akono 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.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
121 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. MB Rouissat lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around MB Rouissat they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
ES Setif arrived with $430.0K and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
The words a physio says slowly. 48 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.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Redouane Maachou was one of the reasons people came, and $430.0K does not replace that by itself.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MB Rouissat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
13 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
In brief
SquadPierre Akono falls out with a teammate over standards
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“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 MB Rouissat, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” MB Rouissat have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Pierre Akono 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.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at MB Rouissat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maximiliano Acosta 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 board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MB Rouissat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 May 2027
Pierre Akono 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.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what MB Rouissat can pretend not to have heard.
Kheiredine Merzougui 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.
In brief
SquadWords at MB Rouissat training over how hard people work
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MB Rouissat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Pierre Akono 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“I have watched this squad. There is more in it than the table says.” First press conference, first promise — the manager made the one every new manager makes, and now comes the part where it gets checked.
Kheiredine Merzougui 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.
0‑3 to ES Mostaganem, 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.
Maximiliano Acosta 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at MB Rouissat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pierre Akono 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.
17 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at MB Rouissat has to find a result from somewhere.
The terraces1 Mar 2027
The mood at MB Rouissat has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 6 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; MB Rouissat are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and MB Rouissat now know that too.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MB Rouissat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Pierre Akono 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.
16 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.
Position 16 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.
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Kheiredine Merzougui 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at MB Rouissat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pierre Akono 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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Necer Benzid.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MB Rouissat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
14 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at MB Rouissat can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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 MB Rouissat, and it is not being withdrawn.
Maximiliano Acosta 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at MB Rouissat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pierre Akono 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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Elias Ochiobi.
The mood at MB Rouissat has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at MB Rouissat is running low.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what MB Rouissat can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MB Rouissat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Zakaria Hadraf is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Maximiliano Acosta trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against USM Alger? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MB Rouissat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Pierre Akono 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. MB Rouissat told Siaka Bagayoko something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Kheiredine Merzougui 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at MB Rouissat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pierre Akono 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 this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MB Rouissat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at MB Rouissat can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Pierre Akono 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.
5 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.
Pierre Akono 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 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Maximiliano Acosta trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The mood at MB Rouissat has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MB Rouissat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Pierre Akono 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MB Rouissat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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.
Kheiredine Merzougui 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at MB Rouissat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pierre Akono 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.13 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MB Rouissat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Pierre Akono 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.
9 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.
9 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at MB Rouissat can tell you which week it ends in.
“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 MB Rouissat, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MB Rouissat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Pierre Akono 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.
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.
In brief
Player ratingsPierre Akono spends the afternoon fouling
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Eyad Tamer: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
7 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.
7 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at MB Rouissat 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 MB Rouissat 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at MB Rouissat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nwanna Okechukwu 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Kheiredine Merzougui 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at MB Rouissat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pierre Akono 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MB Rouissat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Pierre Akono 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.
8 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at MB Rouissat, another week without a signature from Nwanna Okechukwu.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. ES Setif moved on, Djigo Saikou reports back to MB Rouissat, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Elias Ochiobi 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.
5 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at MB Rouissat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pierre Akono 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Mehdi Halliche 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Yacine Bellahcene 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 MB Rouissat can pretend not to have heard.
Kheiredine Merzougui 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at MB Rouissat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pierre Akono 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MB Rouissat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Faik Amrane, and the manager let it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
7 new faces, and MB Rouissat 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.