MC El Bayadh and MB Rouissat have settled on $5.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. MC El Bayadh have done the hard part with CR Belouizdad, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Mohamed Toumi 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CR Belouizdad have kept their man, and MC El Bayadh go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad30 Jun 2031
Emmanuel Igwe 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Adel Benaceur trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee MC El Bayadh could ask drops and the wages Emmanuel Igwe can ask rise.
“He needs to be playing at a level that matches him, and we are open to conversations.” Nobody says that by accident, and nobody at MC El Bayadh misheard it.
Abdelkadir Salhi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 May 2031
Words at MC El Bayadh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Igwe 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Issam Abdelhamid Naim is on it.
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee MC El Bayadh could ask drops and the wages Youcef Halliche can ask rise.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
In brief
SquadThe training reports on Suaibo Jassi are not good
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MC El Bayadh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emmanuel Igwe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Islam Touba has his answer from MC El Bayadh; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout17 Mar 2031
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Bilal Ounas left the room before anybody could ask which.
73 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. MC El Bayadh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. MC El Bayadh told Suaibo Jassi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Bilal Ounas after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Looking ahead2 Dec 2030
MC El Bayadh take on the side everybody is chasing
ES Setif arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Kelly Madada’s negotiating for him
The words a physio says slowly. 91 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Issam Abdelhamid Naim provided it, and the 9.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Abdelkadir Salhi 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between MC El Bayadh and JS Saoura, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
The words a physio says slowly. 127 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what MC El Bayadh can pretend not to have heard.
Everything agreed with JS Kabylie, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MC El Bayadh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. ASO Chlef have kept their man, and MC El Bayadh go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Charles Bassey was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.