A brace, and Ahmed Hassan takes the afternoon — 9.58
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ahmed Hassan provided it, and the 9.58 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” MC Oran have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Ahmed Hassan 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between MC Oran and USM Alger, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at MC Oran training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmed Touba 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at MC Oran has been clear about where Maxwell Baakoh stands, which is more than many ever get.
“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 The request is on a desk at MC Oran, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.83 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
4 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MC Oran this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Ahmed Touba 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Redouane Zerdoum 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.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” MC Oran have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The first defeat in 9 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Paradou; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Anis Mahdi Mendil will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around MC Oran the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ahmed Hassan 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ahmed Touba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at MC Oran can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
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 Omar Bensebaini left the room before anybody could ask which.
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. MC Oran lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.92 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” MC Oran have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 MC Oran, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Anis Mahdi Mendil will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around MC Oran the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ken-Gaston Koumous is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. MC Oran lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Anis Mahdi Mendil will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around MC Oran the goodbyes have quietly begun.
MC Oran had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Obolon, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Ahmed Hassan 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ken-Gaston Koumous is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Krasnodar have kept their man, and MC Oran go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The words a physio says slowly. 119 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at MC Oran is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
MC Oran offered $1.1M; CR Belouizdad said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Ahmed Hassan 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.
Olympique Akbou paid $150.0K and MC Oran took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. MC Alger have kept their man, and MC Oran go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
MC Oran arrived with $560.0K 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.
“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 ASO Chlef, and it is not being withdrawn.
Redouane Zerdoum has gone, the accounts have $560.0K in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
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.
ASO Chlef asked and Zamalek said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Edlin Essang-Matouti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at ASO Chlef training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mustapha Alili 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation ASO Chlef are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“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 MC Oran, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around MC Oran they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The offer went to CR Belouizdad 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Al Ahly is saying, and nobody at MC Oran 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 MC Oran this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
CR Belouizdad pay $380.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
MC Oran offered $49.0K; JS Saoura said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Ibrahim Farhi 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edlin Essang-Matouti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. ASO Chlef know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
ASO Chlef have accepted the money. What MC Oran do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“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 MC Oran, and it is not being withdrawn.
The chase for Tosin Omoyele ended with $380.0K changing hands and CS Constantine out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The phone has started ringing about Oussama Kaddour again, and this time the name on the line is CR Belouizdad. MC Oran are listening politely and promising nothing.
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 ASO Chlef can pretend not to have heard.
The deal with USM Alger is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ASO Chlef this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at ASO Chlef training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mustapha Alili 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 loan enquiry to CS Constantine: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at ASO Chlef than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
“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 Kabylie, 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 JS Kabylie this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The offer went to CR Belouizdad 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.
$84.0K was the most the club would pay and MC Oran 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.
Naoufel Khacef was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $3.4M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at JS Kabylie training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Naoufel Khacef 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 bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. ASO Chlef will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad24 May 2027
Belal Ateya 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.
Mohamed Hamami 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yacine Goudjil trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 50 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Belal Ateya was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at ASO Chlef has been clear about where Redouane Zerdoum stands, which is more than many ever get.
6 clean sheets from 21 appearances at ES Ben Aknoun. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Oussama Benattia signs something — a contract at ASO Chlef or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” ASO Chlef may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Belal Ateya 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 ASO Chlef this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at ASO Chlef. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at ASO Chlef, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
SquadQuestions about Ayoub Kerssani on the training pitch
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. ASO Chlef lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
6 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Belkacem Brahimi and ASO Chlef agree another 2 years.
3 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.
Olympique Akbou left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Riyad Benayada to a room that had heard them before.
MC Alger have accepted the money. What ASO Chlef do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“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 ASO Chlef, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at ASO Chlef until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Everything agreed with Mamelodi Sundowns, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Belal Ateya 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.
Ibrahim Farhi 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.21 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The offer went to CR Belouizdad 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.
“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 ASO Chlef, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.16, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Belal Ateya 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 JS Saoura, 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.
At 21 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.
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around ASO Chlef are no longer polite ones.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Belal Ateya 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.
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.
Boardroom19 Oct 2026
Nobody left the ASO Chlef dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Something was said to Oussama Bentaleb and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A brace, and Kokou Avotor takes the afternoon — 9.08
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kokou Avotor provided it, and the 9.08 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 ASO Chlef, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. USM Alger have kept their man, and ASO Chlef go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Belal Ateya 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.
Everything agreed with JS Saoura, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
ASO Chlef asked and MC Alger said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ASO Chlef 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.