Marked for Kamel Belmiloud
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Jul 2029
96 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. ES Ben Aknoun lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad23 Jul 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 Ben Aknoun this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Words at ES Ben Aknoun training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Housseyn Selmi 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 targets23 Jul 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. USM Alger have kept their man, and ES Ben Aknoun go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout23 Jul 2029
The manager makes an example of Nassim Yattou
“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.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2029
A loan enquiry to CR Belouizdad: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad23 Jul 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Bilal Benrahma and ES Ben Aknoun agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market23 Jul 2029
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 May 2029
The knee: Nassim Yattou out for 152 days
152 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. ES Ben Aknoun lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market28 May 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.
The dugout28 May 2029
Luís Alberto: 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.” ES Ben Aknoun have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad28 May 2029
Musa Afeez 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.
Squad28 May 2029
Words at ES Ben Aknoun training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Housseyn Selmi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout28 May 2029
The manager makes an example of Zizo
“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
Crisis
Squad7 May 2029
26 days out for Adil Djabout after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. ES Ben Aknoun will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom7 May 2029
Ismail Benrahma has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at ES Ben Aknoun can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market7 May 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 ES Ben Aknoun, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 May 2029
The ES Ben Aknoun board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Squad7 May 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mohamed Souibaâh and ES Ben Aknoun agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 May 2029
Words at ES Ben Aknoun training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Housseyn Selmi 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.
Squad7 May 2029
Adil Djabout and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market7 May 2029
“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.
The dugout7 May 2029
The manager's exit leaves Kamel Belmiloud exposed
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Kamel Belmiloud is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Mar 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mohamed Benchaira
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. ES Ben Aknoun lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Adil Djabout breaks a bone — 90 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 90 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom5 Mar 2029
Ismail Benrahma has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at ES Ben Aknoun can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Match3 Mar 2029
There were 87 minutes on the clock and JS Saoura had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and ES Ben Aknoun did not stop to explain themselves.
Match3 Mar 2029
8 matches without a win, and then this, against JS Saoura. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Akram Djahnit 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 Mar 2029
Words at ES Ben Aknoun training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lounas Adjout 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.
Match3 Mar 2029
Three points for ES Ben Aknoun, 1‑0 the final word against JS Saoura in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings5 Mar 2029
7.87, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. ES Ben Aknoun had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match28 Oct 2028
12 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.
Match30 Oct 2028
Every point is an argument now for ES Ben Aknoun
Position 16 and 1 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Mohamed Benchaira 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.
Match28 Oct 2028
CS Constantine left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Housseyn Selmi 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 dugout30 Oct 2028
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ismail Benrahma after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
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.
Player ratings30 Oct 2028
There was no pressure on him and nowhere he had to be. ES Ben Aknoun lost a goal to a decision that took half a second and will be discussed all week.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
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.