Marked for Abdelhak Askar
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match27 Feb 2027
No end in sight to ES Mostaganem's wait for a win
24 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.
The terraces1 Mar 2027
Anger at ES Mostaganem spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
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.
Market1 Mar 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 The request is on a desk at ES Mostaganem, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Ahmed Aït-Abdesslem 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.
Match27 Feb 2027
Paradou left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Daouda Koné
“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 ratings1 Mar 2027
Abdelhak Askar ran the middle of the pitch — 6.65
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 11 combined actions and a mark of 6.65, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Djamel Benlamri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match13 Feb 2027
22 matches without a win for ES Mostaganem
The run now stands at 22, and the questions being asked around ES Mostaganem are no longer polite ones.
Match15 Feb 2027
5 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Ali Haroun 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.
Match13 Feb 2027
ES Ben Aknoun left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aqtay Abdallah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Nassim Djabou after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Boualem Amine Masmoudi, and the manager let it.
Looking ahead15 Feb 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match23 Jan 2027
19 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
13 saves: Daouda Koné was the team
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 13 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market25 Jan 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 ES Mostaganem, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
The offer went to CS Constantine 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.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Slavia Sofia have kept their man, and ES Mostaganem go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match23 Jan 2027
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aqtay Abdallah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad25 Jan 2027
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Mohamed Naâmani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Dec 2026
No end in sight to ES Mostaganem's wait for a win
13 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 51 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A one-man rearguard from Daouda Koné
There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Ahmed Aït-Abdesslem and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match12 Dec 2026
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Match12 Dec 2026
4 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Match12 Dec 2026
0‑2 to CS Constantine, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Abdelhak Askar
“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 dugout14 Dec 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match21 Nov 2026
10 matches without a win for ES Mostaganem
The run now stands at 10, and the questions being asked around ES Mostaganem are no longer polite ones.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Mohamed Medjaji damages knee ligaments — 20 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 20 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.
Match23 Nov 2026
Position 15, 3 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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Mohamed Medjaji: 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 Mostaganem have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad23 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 ES Mostaganem this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Daouda Koné 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 Nov 2026
It needed Abdelhak Askar to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against MC Oran, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad23 Nov 2026
No place for Aqtay Abdallah in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation ES Mostaganem are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Nassim Djabou was not hiding it after 2‑2, and nobody in the ES Mostaganem dressing room was either.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Oct 2026
0‑3 to ES Ben Aknoun, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Match24 Oct 2026
No end in sight to ES Mostaganem's wait for a win
7 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.
Squad26 Oct 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 ES Mostaganem this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at ES Mostaganem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sid Ali Lamri 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Boardroom26 Oct 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Nassim Djabou to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Sep 2026
Ali Haroun 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
0‑1 to USM Alger, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Medjaji was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
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.
Looking ahead21 Sep 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Abdel Ali Hamadi’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and ES Mostaganem needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Mounir Aziria knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mounir Aziria trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and ES Mostaganem will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.