Marked for Abdelhak Askar
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Feb 2031
Naoufel Khacef 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.
Transfer targets17 Feb 2031
ES Mostaganem asked and CR Belouizdad 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 dugout17 Feb 2031
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The dugout17 Feb 2031
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Anton Vogt was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the ES Mostaganem dressing room was either.
Looking ahead17 Feb 2031
A test against the best for ES Mostaganem
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against ES Setif.
Match15 Feb 2031
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. MC Oran will be the happier side with the point.
Looking ahead17 Feb 2031
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Abdelhak Askar’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 dugout17 Feb 2031
Ali Haroun unhappy with how he is being used
Asked to play a role that is not his, or taken off before the hour once too often — Ali Haroun has let it be known that he does not like the way ES Mostaganem are using him. Managers hear this long before the press does.
Player ratings17 Feb 2031
Successful dribbles: 8. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match8 Feb 2031
Beaten 0‑3 by Paradou, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad10 Feb 2031
Naoufel Khacef and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Feb 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ali Haroun was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets10 Feb 2031
ES Mostaganem asked and CR Belouizdad said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Boardroom10 Feb 2031
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 dugout10 Feb 2031
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout10 Feb 2031
The manager makes an example of Bilal Mandi
“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.
Looking ahead10 Feb 2031
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against MC Oran in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Market10 Feb 2031
The Omar Kamel talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. ES Mostaganem know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings27 Jan 2031
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.20 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad27 Jan 2031
Naoufel Khacef 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.
Match25 Jan 2031
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Transfer targets27 Jan 2031
ES Mostaganem asked and JS Saoura said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets27 Jan 2031
ES Mostaganem have made the call to MC Alger. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout27 Jan 2031
Anton Vogt: “That is the standard”
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
The dugout27 Jan 2031
When it matters, Ali Haroun plays
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.
Squad27 Jan 2031
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match2 Dec 2030
Position 16, 5 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.
Match30 Nov 2030
8 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.
The dugout2 Dec 2030
“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.
Squad2 Dec 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ali Haroun and ES Mostaganem agree another 2 years.
Match30 Nov 2030
4 matches without a goal for ES Mostaganem
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad2 Dec 2030
Naoufel Khacef 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.
Squad2 Dec 2030
Words at ES Mostaganem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ali Haroun 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.
Player ratings2 Dec 2030
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad2 Dec 2030
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad4 Nov 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 42 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match4 Nov 2030
Position 14, 4 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.
Match2 Nov 2030
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.
Squad4 Nov 2030
Naoufel Khacef 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.
Match2 Nov 2030
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout4 Nov 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yanis Bentchakal, and the manager let it.
Squad4 Nov 2030
Appearance number 200 for Ali Haroun
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
The dugout4 Nov 2030
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad4 Nov 2030
A place in the month's best eleven for Djibril Merouani
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Djibril Merouani has come out of that comparison in the side, and ES Mostaganem have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Oct 2030
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. ES Mostaganem will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad14 Oct 2030
Naoufel Khacef 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.
Match12 Oct 2030
1‑2 to ES Ben Aknoun, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market14 Oct 2030
“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.
Squad14 Oct 2030
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Youcef Belkebla commits to ES Mostaganem for another 3 years.
The dugout14 Oct 2030
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout14 Oct 2030
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. ES Mostaganem told Yanis Bentchakal something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Player ratings14 Oct 2030
Nobody could get near Zaid Osman
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Looking ahead14 Oct 2030
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Abdelhak Askar’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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Oct 2030
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. ES Mostaganem will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match2 Oct 2030
Paradou ended it 0‑1. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
The dugout7 Oct 2030
Patrick Kipkirui: 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.
Squad7 Oct 2030
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.
Match5 Oct 2030
It had gone 6 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Squad7 Oct 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Abdelhak Askar and ES Mostaganem agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Oct 2030
Words at ES Mostaganem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ali Haroun 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.
Match5 Oct 2030
A 1‑0 win over Olympique Akbou, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings7 Oct 2030
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.72 on the card, and the ES Mostaganem support went home talking about one name.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Mar 2030
80 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.
Market4 Mar 2030
Seif Benrabah has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ES Mostaganem they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings4 Mar 2030
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.22 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match2 Mar 2030
No end in sight to ES Mostaganem's wait for a win
5 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.
Squad4 Mar 2030
Words at ES Mostaganem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Seif Benrabah 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.
Squad4 Mar 2030
50 goals in these colours now, every one of them somebody’s memory. There is a supporter in the stand who can tell you where he was for most of them.
Player ratings4 Mar 2030
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad4 Mar 2030
A season average of 7.20 with 7 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
The dugout4 Mar 2030
Something was said to Omar Kamel and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market21 Jan 2030
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.
Market21 Jan 2030
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. ES Mostaganem have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Transfer targets21 Jan 2030
The clubs have shaken hands with USM Alger; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Squad21 Jan 2030
Ali Haroun and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets21 Jan 2030
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.
Squad21 Jan 2030
Words at ES Mostaganem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Seif Benrabah 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.
Player ratings21 Jan 2030
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match19 Jan 2030
ES Ben Aknoun left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout21 Jan 2030
“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.