Marked for Moncef Bisker
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market9 Aug 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Paradou, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market9 Aug 2027
The bid was some way short and Paradou did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
The paperwork begins on Nana Ayew
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Paradou have done the hard part with Liberty Professionals, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Fouad Kermiche and Paradou agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad9 Aug 2027
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al Ahly have kept their man, and Paradou go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words exchanged at Paradou
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 dugout9 Aug 2027
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market19 Jul 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Paradou have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market19 Jul 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Paradou, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market19 Jul 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market19 Jul 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Amayas Boudedja will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Paradou the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
Everything agreed with Olympique Akbou, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad19 Jul 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mustapha Soukkou and Paradou agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. El-Kanemi Warriors have kept their man, and Paradou go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words exchanged at Paradou
Abdeldjalil Tahri 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
16 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Jun 2027
MC Alger arrived with $680.0K 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.
Market7 Jun 2027
The bid was some way short and Paradou did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
The terraces7 Jun 2027
Abdallah Bendouma has gone, the accounts have $680.0K 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.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Paradou may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market7 Jun 2027
“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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Paradou training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Taha Yassine Tahar 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.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad7 Jun 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 Paradou this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
$3.4M on the table at Paradou
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Feb 2027
129 days out for Fouad Kermiche after a fracture
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.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 37. 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.
Match6 Feb 2027
Ben Ahmed Kohili had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and ES Mostaganem were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Marked 7.77 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Paradou may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match6 Feb 2027
4 matches without a win for Paradou
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Paradou are no longer polite ones.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Paradou
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Taha Yassine Tahar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Paradou asked and WAFA said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout8 Feb 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
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 dugout16 Nov 2026
“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 dugout16 Nov 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Amine Bellahcene after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Paradou
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Younes Badani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match14 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. CS Constantine will be the happier side with the point.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Paradou will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“If we are going to be beaten, let it not be because somebody in here could not be bothered.” He stood up and said it in front of everybody, which is a thing a squad remembers about a man for years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match19 Sep 2026
JS Kabylie left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad21 Sep 2026
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 dugout21 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Amine Bellahcene after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Paradou
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amayas Boudedja was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Ahmed Abdelkader asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Asked to play a role that is not his, or taken off before the hour once too often — Mohamed Islam Abdelkader has let it be known that he does not like the way Paradou are using him. Managers hear this long before the press does.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Paradou
Lalaina Rafanomezantsoa 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Younes Badani 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.