Marked for Yves Mbappe
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market5 Apr 2032
“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 The request is on a desk at USM Alger, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout5 Apr 2032
“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.
Market5 Apr 2032
Only the photograph left for Yves Mbappe
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yves Mbappe will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around USM Alger the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom5 Apr 2032
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad5 Apr 2032
“The easiest signature of my career.” Oussama Benbout and USM Alger agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Apr 2032
Ghiles Guenaoui and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Apr 2032
Saâdi Radouani 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.
Squad5 Apr 2032
Youssef Oubaba pulls a muscle — 14 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Market5 Apr 2032
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad3 Feb 2031
39 goals and a season average of 8.14. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match1 Feb 2031
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 7‑2 against ES Ben Aknoun, and it could have been more.
Squad3 Feb 2031
4 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Market3 Feb 2031
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and MC El Bayadh waiting with a shirt. Nobody at ES Setif is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Player ratings3 Feb 2031
Two goals and a mark of 10.00 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match3 Feb 2031
The view from the top for ES Setif
61 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Squad3 Feb 2031
Balla Sangaré gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Balla Sangaré has just signed for ES Setif, and for once the answer mattered.
Match1 Feb 2031
The run at home goes on for ES Setif
14 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Match1 Feb 2031
ES Setif make it 5 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now ES Setif have 5 straight wins of it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad16 Dec 2030
25 goals and a season average of 7.79. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match14 Dec 2030
MB Rouissat will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. ES Setif were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad16 Dec 2030
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Match14 Dec 2030
Nobody wants to play ES Setif right now
6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Market16 Dec 2030
Osama Ahmed has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ES Setif they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout16 Dec 2030
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Market16 Dec 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 Setif, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout16 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.
Squad16 Dec 2030
Riad Benayad in a row with a teammate
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 Setif this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad18 Nov 2030
Mahamoud Metwaly damages knee ligaments — 38 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 38 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.
Player ratings18 Nov 2030
A brace, and Daniel Gnahoua takes the afternoon — 9.02
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Daniel Gnahoua provided it, and the 9.02 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market18 Nov 2030
Only the photograph left for Osama Ahmed
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Osama Ahmed will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around ES Setif the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout18 Nov 2030
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Market18 Nov 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 Setif, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout18 Nov 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.
Player ratings18 Nov 2030
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad18 Nov 2030
Words exchanged at ES Setif
Mahamoud Metwaly 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.
Match16 Nov 2030
Whatever happens, ES Setif do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad21 Oct 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mahamoud Metwaly
66 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. ES Setif lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad21 Oct 2030
The match ball belongs to Ben Ahmed Kohili, whose 5 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Match19 Oct 2030
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 6‑2 against ES Ben Aknoun, and it could have been more.
Market21 Oct 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ES Setif is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad21 Oct 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The dugout21 Oct 2030
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Market21 Oct 2030
Yves Mbappe hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what ES Setif can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout21 Oct 2030
Mutari Momoh: 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 Setif have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad21 Oct 2030
Riad Benayad 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match21 Sep 2030
4‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad23 Sep 2030
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Market23 Sep 2030
Osama Ahmed has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ES Setif they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad23 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.
The dugout23 Sep 2030
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Market23 Sep 2030
Yves Mbappe hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what ES Setif can pretend not to have heard.
Match21 Sep 2030
ES Setif make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now ES Setif have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad23 Sep 2030
Jadsom in a row with a teammate
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 Setif this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings23 Sep 2030
Marked 10.00 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad3 Jun 2030
A fracture rules Merwane Khelif out for 32 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason ES Setif will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad3 Jun 2030
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. ES Setif lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout3 Jun 2030
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Market3 Jun 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 Setif, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout3 Jun 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” ES Setif may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market3 Jun 2030
Muhammed Alao has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ES Setif they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad3 Jun 2030
Riad Benayad 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.
Market3 Jun 2030
The interest is real enough to have reached print. ES Setif have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market3 Jun 2030
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ahmed Ayman Mansour has his answer from ES Setif; what he does with it is the next window’s story.