Marked for Abdelhak Askar
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces13 Oct 2031
The mood at ES Mostaganem has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Match11 Oct 2031
6 matches without a win for ES Mostaganem
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around ES Mostaganem are no longer polite ones.
Market13 Oct 2031
Only the photograph left for Lius Dadong
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lius Dadong will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around ES Mostaganem the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad13 Oct 2031
Alonso Hernández 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.
Squad13 Oct 2031
The manager makes an example of Mehdi Zeffane
“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 ratings13 Oct 2031
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad13 Oct 2031
Pascal Omgba 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.
Market13 Oct 2031
Pascal Omgba is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at ES Mostaganem has been clear about where Pascal Omgba stands, which is more than many ever get.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Oct 2031
A knee injury of the worst kind for Benali Benamar
15 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.
Match1 Oct 2031
Out, 1‑2 to MC Oran, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Match4 Oct 2031
5 matches without a win for ES Mostaganem
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around ES Mostaganem are no longer polite ones.
Market6 Oct 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ES Mostaganem is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings6 Oct 2031
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad6 Oct 2031
Words at ES Mostaganem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anis Khemaissia 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.
Squad6 Oct 2031
Mohamed Taib 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 Oct 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Abdelhak Askar, and the manager let it.
Market6 Oct 2031
John Okoli is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at ES Mostaganem has been clear about where John Okoli stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces15 Sep 2031
The mood at ES Mostaganem has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad15 Sep 2031
A knee injury of the worst kind for Benali Benamar
36 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.
Squad15 Sep 2031
“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.
Market15 Sep 2031
Lius Dadong 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.
Squad15 Sep 2031
Alonso Hernández 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.
Squad15 Sep 2031
Anis Khemaissia 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.
Match13 Sep 2031
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The terraces15 Sep 2031
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Player ratings15 Sep 2031
Successful dribbles: 12. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Jul 2031
A knee injury of the worst kind for Benali Benamar
99 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.
Squad14 Jul 2031
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 56 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom14 Jul 2031
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at ES Mostaganem is running low.
Squad14 Jul 2031
Lius Dadong: 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.
Market14 Jul 2031
MB Rouissat come back empty-handed
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.
Squad14 Jul 2031
32 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market13 Jan 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ES Mostaganem is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad13 Jan 2031
Alonso Hernández 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.
Market13 Jan 2031
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. ES Mostaganem will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad13 Jan 2031
Words at ES Mostaganem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Arab 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.
Squad13 Jan 2031
“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.
Match11 Jan 2031
0‑1 to JS Kabylie, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad13 Jan 2031
The manager has not finished forgetting Abdelhak Askar'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.
The terraces13 Jan 2031
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Market13 Jan 2031
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
Crisis
Boardroom30 Dec 2030
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at ES Mostaganem is running low.
Squad30 Dec 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” ES Mostaganem may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market30 Dec 2030
Only the photograph left for Michael Fokou
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Michael Fokou will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around ES Mostaganem the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match28 Dec 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.
Squad30 Dec 2030
Alonso Hernández 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.
Squad30 Dec 2030
Words at ES Mostaganem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Arab 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.
Squad30 Dec 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anis Khemaissia, and the manager let it.
Match28 Dec 2030
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings30 Dec 2030
Marked 3.92. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market16 Dec 2030
Ismail Belaili 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.
Squad16 Dec 2030
Taher Ben Khelifa 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.
Squad16 Dec 2030
Anis Khemaissia 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.
Squad16 Dec 2030
The manager makes an example of Mehdi Zeffane
“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.
Match14 Dec 2030
JS Saoura left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad16 Dec 2030
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces9 Dec 2030
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.
Squad9 Dec 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad9 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.
Squad9 Dec 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.
Squad9 Dec 2030
Mohamed Arab 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.
Match7 Dec 2030
It needed Alonso Hernández to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against MB Rouissat, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom2 Dec 2030
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at ES Mostaganem is running low.
Market2 Dec 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ES Mostaganem is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Squad2 Dec 2030
Alonso Hernández 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
Anis Khemaissia 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.
Match30 Nov 2030
It finished 2‑1, and it was Lius Dadong’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to ES Mostaganem.
Squad2 Dec 2030
The manager makes an example of Mohamed Arab
“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 ratings2 Dec 2030
The afternoon belonged to Djakao Barka
7.93, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. ES Mostaganem had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Boardroom2 Dec 2030
$1.3M taken back off the ES Mostaganem table
What was available in the summer has quietly gone. Upstairs nobody will call it a change of ambition; downstairs nobody will call it anything else.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market21 Oct 2030
Ismail Belaili 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.
Squad21 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.
Squad21 Oct 2030
Words at ES Mostaganem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anis Khemaissia 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.
Squad21 Oct 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mehdi Zeffane, and the manager let it.
Match19 Oct 2030
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad21 Oct 2030
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.
Player ratings21 Oct 2030
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings21 Oct 2030
A mark of 5.74 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match2 Oct 2030
MC Oran ended it 2‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Player ratings7 Oct 2030
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.96, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad7 Oct 2030
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Badreddine Hadidi: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Player ratings7 Oct 2030
A debut Hillal Tahrat will not forget — 7.30
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.30 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Player ratings7 Oct 2030
No sign of nerves from Ismail Belaili at 18 — 8.00
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ismail Belaili did not need any: 8.00, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market7 Oct 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ES Mostaganem is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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
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.
Squad7 Oct 2030
Mohamed Arab 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad30 Sep 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad30 Sep 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” ES Mostaganem may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market30 Sep 2030
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Badreddine Hadidi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around ES Mostaganem the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Alonso Hernández 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.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Anis Khemaissia 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.
Match28 Sep 2030
JS Kabylie left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market23 Sep 2030
Ismail Belaili 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.
Squad23 Sep 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.
Squad23 Sep 2030
Words at ES Mostaganem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anis Khemaissia 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.
Squad23 Sep 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mehdi Zeffane, and the manager let it.
Squad23 Sep 2030
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom4 Mar 2030
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
The terraces4 Mar 2030
The mood at ES Mostaganem has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Boardroom4 Mar 2030
A stranger takes charge at ES Mostaganem
The coaching staff has emptied out entirely and there was nobody internal to promote, so the club has appointed a name almost none of its supporters will recognise. Clubs recover from this; none of them enjoy explaining it.
Boardroom4 Mar 2030
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Interim Coach recited it perfectly.
Squad4 Mar 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” ES Mostaganem may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market4 Mar 2030
Only the photograph left for Michael Fokou
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Michael Fokou will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around ES Mostaganem the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad4 Mar 2030
Alonso Hernández 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.
Squad4 Mar 2030
Words at ES Mostaganem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Taher Ben Khelifa 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
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match18 Feb 2030
16 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market18 Feb 2030
“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.
Market18 Feb 2030
Lius Dadong 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.
Squad18 Feb 2030
Alonso Hernández 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.
Squad18 Feb 2030
Djakao Barka 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.
Match16 Feb 2030
A 1‑0 win over ES Setif, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings18 Feb 2030
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.18, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad18 Feb 2030
“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.
Squad18 Feb 2030
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 Dec 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 Mostaganem, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad17 Dec 2029
“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.
Squad17 Dec 2029
Alonso Hernández 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.
Squad17 Dec 2029
Words at ES Mostaganem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Taher Ben Khelifa 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.
Squad17 Dec 2029
“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.
Match15 Dec 2029
ASO Chlef left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings17 Dec 2029
Shots: 10. 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.
Player ratings17 Dec 2029
An afternoon Boualem Sryer will want back
Marked 5.39. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Player ratings17 Dec 2029
5.39. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.