11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Adel Bouzida 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fouad Kermiche was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Imad Reguieg and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Ben Ahmed Kohili's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Abdelkader Bounedjah chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Adel Bouzida 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.
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 Ben Ahmed Kohili is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Paradou, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against USM Khenchela in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 2 on the scoresheet, 8.34 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
3 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Ouanisse Bouzahzah will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Paradou escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
“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 Paradou, and it is not being withdrawn.
7.46, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Paradou is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mohamed Lamine Tahar and Paradou agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Two goals and a mark of 8.56 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Two goals and a mark of 8.56 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Paradou this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
9 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.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
3 goals inside twenty minutes with Abderrahmane Bacha in the middle of it, and Olympique Akbou unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Paradou they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Paradou this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Paradou 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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Moncef Bisker 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Paradou are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Ahmed Abdelkader’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Paradou needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to CR Belouizdad; Paradou go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 9 arrived, 10 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Paradou have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Paradou can pretend not to have heard.
The board have signed the man in the dugout to a longer contract, which says more than any statement of support. Stability is easy to promise and costly to keep.
6 goals in one match, Abderrahmane Bacha on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Paradou and USM Alger.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Nehemiah Onchiri is living that version at Paradou, and it tends to show in the first month.
Adel Bouzida 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Oldham Athletic have kept their man, and Paradou go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words at Paradou training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moncef Bisker 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Salah Eddine Zaoui trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Mohamed Islam Abdelkader may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Paradou they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Paradou this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Paradou asked and USM Khenchela 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 is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
53 points from position 4. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Words at Paradou training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moncef Bisker 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Houssem Tarzout trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Mohamed Islam Abdelkader may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
“He is at an age where he has to be playing at the top level. We will listen to anybody.” The representative of Mohamed Islam Abdelkader is not being subtle.
The offer from MC Alger for Mustapha Soukkou 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Paradou they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Paradou have gone to CS Constantine with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Paradou this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. USM Khenchela have kept their man, and Paradou go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nobody at Paradou 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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Words at Paradou training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moncef Bisker 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 is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. CR Belouizdad kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Paradou will be asked about the last half hour all week.
CS Constantine have accepted the money. What Paradou do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The name of Abderrahmane Bacha has come up in conversations Paradou were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Paradou is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Adel Bouzida 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.
The offer from ES Setif for Youcef Belkaid 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 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.
Adel Bouzida 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.
$73.0K was the most the club would pay and USM Khenchela 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CR Belouizdad have kept their man, and Paradou go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nobody at Paradou 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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at Paradou training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moncef Bisker 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.
MC Alger arrived with $510.0K 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 offer from MC Alger for Abderrahmane Bacha 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.
Abdallah Bendouma has gone, the accounts have $510.0K 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Paradou can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Paradou they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al Ahly keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
$73.0K on the table at USM Khenchela. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Paradou this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Paradou, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with JS Kabylie 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.
Adel Bouzida 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.
Adel Bouzida 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.
Something was said to Adel Bouzida and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Nobody at Paradou 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.
Squad29 May 2028
Moncef Bisker 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ahmed Abdelkader trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 Paradou, and it is not being withdrawn.
Adel Bouzida 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Paradou, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Abderrahmane Bacha signs something — a contract at Paradou or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Adel Bouzida 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.
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 Abderrahmane Bacha.
It needed Lalaina Rafanomezantsoa to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against MB Rouissat, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Abdelkader Bounedjah chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Abderrahmane Bacha obliged against MC Alger. 3‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Paradou.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Paradou scored in the 114th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
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.
Adel Bouzida 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.
At 22 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mohammed Kerroum will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Paradou the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Paradou this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Mustapha Soukkou is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moncef Bisker was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Amayas Boudedja's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
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.
At 22 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.
Player ratings6 Mar 2028
Adel Bouzida was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.27. 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Adel Bouzida is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
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.” Abdelkader Bounedjah kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Paradou, another week without a signature from Ahmed Abdelkader.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Moncef Bisker 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Youcef Belkaid will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Paradou the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then MC Oran scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
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 Adel Bouzida is on it.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 2‑2, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moncef Bisker was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Paradou told Younes Badani something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: CR Belouizdad keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Paradou 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Paradou is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Adel Bouzida 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Corinthians have kept their man, and Paradou go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Ben Ahmed Kohili has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Paradou can pretend not to have heard.
The name of Taha Yassine Tahar has come up in conversations Paradou were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Adel Bouzida 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.
At 22 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.
8 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.99 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mohammed Kerroum will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Paradou the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Adel Bouzida 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.
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.
8.12. 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 20 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Paradou they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Adel Bouzida and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Adel Bouzida was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.02. 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.
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 Adel Bouzida is on it.
In brief
SquadWords at Paradou training over how hard people work
SquadThe division's best last weekend was a Paradou man
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Abderrahmane Bacha provided it, and the 8.86 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ben Ahmed Kohili provided it, and the 8.76 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Paradou this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Marked 8.39 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fouad Kermiche was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Paradou will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. CS Constantine kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Paradou will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Adel Bouzida 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Paradou training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fouad Kermiche 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.
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 Mustapha Soukkou is on it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Abdelkader Bounedjah after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Paradou will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Youcef Belkaid will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Paradou the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Abdelkader Bounedjah chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Paradou will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Paradou have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Paradou this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
ES Setif next, and one man in the Paradou dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Taha Yassine Tahar signs something — a contract at Paradou or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Taha Yassine Tahar may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 63 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
1 for Taha Yassine Tahar, marked 7.88, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Paradou have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Adel Bouzida 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 71 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 87th, and MC Oran spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Paradou is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Adel Bouzida 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Houssem Tarzout has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 80 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Paradou have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Youcef Belkaid will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Paradou the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It needed Abderrahmane Bacha to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against USM Khenchela, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Paradou have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Nobody at Paradou 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Paradou training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moncef Bisker 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 used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against ES Ben Aknoun in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Paradou is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Adel Bouzida 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.
Marked 9.17 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Abderrahmane Bacha in the middle of it, and Olympique Akbou unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Paradou has been clear about where Abdallah Bendouma stands, which is more than many ever get.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Abderrahmane Bacha provided it, and the 8.52 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Paradou 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 Paradou this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Minute 93, against CR Belouizdad, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Abdelkader Bounedjah chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
“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 Paradou, 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.” Paradou have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Adel Bouzida 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.
“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 Paradou, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Paradou have done the hard part with CS Constantine, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 5 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at Paradou 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Paradou they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Paradou this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Werder Bremen have kept their man, and Paradou go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Nabil Mrezigue is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Paradou they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Abderrahmane Bacha 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CR Belouizdad have kept their man, and Paradou go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Houssem Tarzout trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
37 points in position 9: too many to go down, too few to go anywhere. The honest description of a season like this is a shrug, and the supporters have already given it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Paradou they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Adel Bouzida 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 Moncef Bisker was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mohamed Lamine Tahar and Paradou agree another 4 years.
Paradou asked and Kano Pillars said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A loan enquiry to Ittihad: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Paradou training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moncef Bisker 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 is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Paradou is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The deal with Ittihad 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 Paradou this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Paradou told Adel Bouzida something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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 Mustapha Soukkou is on it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Paradou they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I watch every Paradou game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at ES Setif runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Paradou this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Mohamed Aït El Hadj has written the date down.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mohamed Islam Abdelkader trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 37 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Paradou have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A performance of 8.16 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Abdelkader Bounedjah, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anes Abed was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Paradou they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Toufik Moussaoui 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 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Paradou this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Moncef Bisker 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.
Shots: 6. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Mohamed Lamine Tahar has moved up it.
ES Setif next, and one man in the Paradou dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and ASO Chlef waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Paradou is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and ES Ben Aknoun were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Abdelkader Bounedjah could afford to be generous.
The words a physio says slowly. 33 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 hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ben Ahmed Kohili did not need any: 7.89, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Abdelkader Bounedjah chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Paradou training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moncef Bisker 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. Paradou will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
41 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Paradou lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Ben Ahmed Kohili has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
“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.
The dugout21 Dec 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.” Abdelkader Bounedjah kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Moncef Bisker 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Paradou will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Paradou this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 21 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Paradou will try not to make too much of it.
A point taken on 86 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Abdelkader Bounedjah was not hiding it after 2‑2, and nobody in the Paradou dressing room was either.