Marked for Houssem Bayoud
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Oct 2029
Albin Björkskog: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” SJK have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market8 Oct 2029
“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 The request is on a desk at SJK, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad8 Oct 2029
Kelvin Pires in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SJK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market10 Sep 2029
“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.
Match8 Sep 2029
6 matches without a win for SJK
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around SJK are no longer polite ones.
Squad10 Sep 2029
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Kelvin Pires in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SJK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Words at SJK training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kasper Paananen 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.
Match8 Sep 2029
HJK take the points off SJK
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad10 Sep 2029
The manager makes an example of Lucky Jimoh
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market10 Sep 2029
Experience through the door at SJK
Aidar Khabibullin arrives at 34 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
Market10 Sep 2029
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Kasper Paananen signs something — a contract at SJK or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match25 Jun 2029
SJK up to position 3
20 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad25 Jun 2029
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” SJK have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Tempers go at SJK
Kelvin Pires 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.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Kasper Paananen 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.
Player ratings25 Jun 2029
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad25 Jun 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Albin Björkskog, and the manager let it.
Player ratings25 Jun 2029
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.06 on the card, and the SJK support went home talking about one name.
Match23 Jun 2029
Point won or two lost for SJK?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against HJK? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Player ratings25 Jun 2029
5.73. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Jun 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Samuel Chukwudi and SJK agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market18 Jun 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SJK they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match16 Jun 2029
SJK make home a hard place to visit
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Kelvin Pires in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SJK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Words at SJK training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kasper Paananen 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.
Squad18 Jun 2029
“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
Uneasy
Squad19 Mar 2029
A fracture rules Benjamin Simsek out for 84 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SJK will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match19 Mar 2029
SJK up to position 3
35 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Kelvin Pires in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SJK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market19 Mar 2029
The phone has started ringing about Mateo Aguilar again, and this time the name on the line is Ilves. SJK are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Words at SJK training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kasper Paananen 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.
Squad19 Mar 2029
A last season at home is what Mathias Kristensen is after
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom1 Jan 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at ES Mostaganem
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad1 Jan 2029
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market1 Jan 2029
“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.
Squad1 Jan 2029
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 Mostaganem this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Camagu Mdevulana 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.
Squad1 Jan 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Benali Benamar, and the manager let it.
Market1 Jan 2029
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Nqubeko Dlamini has his answer from ES Mostaganem; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Match30 Dec 2028
A 1‑1 draw with CR Belouizdad leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Player ratings1 Jan 2029
5.58. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match27 Nov 2028
Position 15, 11 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Player ratings27 Nov 2028
25 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Alonso Hernández 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 Nov 2028
Words at ES Mostaganem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Youness Mokhtar 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.
Squad27 Nov 2028
The manager makes an example of Ali Haroun
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings27 Nov 2028
A performance of 8.01 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad27 Nov 2028
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.
The terraces27 Nov 2028
The spotlight tightens on Ali Haroun
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market23 Oct 2028
Mohamed Touat hands in a written request
“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 Mostaganem can pretend not to have heard.
Squad23 Oct 2028
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 Mostaganem this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Youness Mokhtar 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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Ali Haroun 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.
Match21 Oct 2028
Paradou left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Alonso Hernández has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at ES Mostaganem 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.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
5.68 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
Marked 5.72, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
Lius Dadong could not find anything
5.75. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market18 Sep 2028
“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.
Market18 Sep 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ES Mostaganem is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad18 Sep 2028
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.
Match16 Sep 2028
No end in sight to ES Mostaganem's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at ES Mostaganem has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Alonso Hernández 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.
Match16 Sep 2028
CR Belouizdad left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Words at ES Mostaganem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Camagu Mdevulana 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.
Squad18 Sep 2028
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces11 Sep 2028
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 11 of the 31 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Alonso Hernández 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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Words at ES Mostaganem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Youness Mokhtar 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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
The manager makes an example of Anis Khemaissia
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Match9 Sep 2028
0‑1 to USM Alger, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad11 Sep 2028
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.
Player ratings11 Sep 2028
Marked 5.63. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Player ratings11 Sep 2028
5.71 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
Player ratings11 Sep 2028
A mark of 5.76 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Jun 2028
“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 Mostaganem can pretend not to have heard.
Squad5 Jun 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” ES Mostaganem may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Alonso Hernández 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.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words at ES Mostaganem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Youness Mokhtar 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.
Market5 Jun 2028
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Mohamed Touat has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at ES Mostaganem.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Feb 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mehdi Zeffane
76 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. ES Mostaganem lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad21 Feb 2028
4 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Match19 Feb 2028
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑0 against ES Setif, and it could have been more.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
Age has not caught Justin Dhillon yet — 9.16
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.16 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market21 Feb 2028
“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 ES Mostaganem, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market21 Feb 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Boualem Amine Masmoudi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around ES Mostaganem the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad21 Feb 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Feb 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mehdi Zeffane
83 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. ES Mostaganem lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market14 Feb 2028
“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 Mostaganem can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Abdelrahman Mano, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.37
A mark of 8.37 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market14 Feb 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom14 Feb 2028
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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Alonso Hernández 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 terraces14 Feb 2028
At 20 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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
“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
Steady
Squad7 Feb 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mehdi Zeffane
90 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. ES Mostaganem lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad7 Feb 2028
A fracture rules Alonso Hernández out for 29 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason ES Mostaganem will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market7 Feb 2028
Mohamed Touat hands in a written request
“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 Mostaganem can pretend not to have heard.
Market7 Feb 2028
Paradou come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and ES Mostaganem did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad7 Feb 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad7 Feb 2028
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 Mostaganem this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings7 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match5 Feb 2028
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Market7 Feb 2028
John Okoli linked with a move away
The name of John Okoli keeps appearing in other people's back pages. ES Mostaganem say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad6 Dec 2027
A fracture rules Alonso Hernández out for 99 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason ES Mostaganem will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad6 Dec 2027
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 Mostaganem this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
One of those days for Ali Haroun
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.37, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad6 Dec 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Abdellah El Moudène, and the manager let it.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at ES Mostaganem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Boualem Amine Masmoudi 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.
Match4 Dec 2027
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Market6 Dec 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
5.66 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
5.77 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad29 Nov 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 107 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Alonso Hernández 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.
Match27 Nov 2027
A 1‑0 win over MC El Bayadh, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad29 Nov 2027
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.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
The afternoon belonged to Ali Haroun
7.69, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. ES Mostaganem had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad29 Nov 2027
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.