A brace, and Abdo Yehia takes the afternoon — 8.60
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Abdo Yehia provided it, and the 8.60 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Mory Touré scored, was marked 7.90, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
A 3‑1 win over El Dakhleya, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Youssef Fawzi 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.
9 combined actions and 7.41. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Ghazl El Mahalla pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ghazl El Mahalla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Youssef El Azab 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ahmed Etman and Ghazl El Mahalla agree another 3 years.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Ghazl El Mahalla told Abdo Yehia something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
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 0‑1 El Sayed Mohsen left the room before anybody could ask which.
El Dakhleya next, and one man in the Ghazl El Mahalla dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Abdallah Gamal 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.
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.
“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 dugout9 Apr 2029
The manager has not finished forgetting Bassam Walid'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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” El Sayed Mohsen after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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 Al Ahly.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Al Ahly in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Youssef El Azab 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Youssef Fawzi 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.
Something was said to Atef El Hakim and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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 Ahmed Etman is on it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Youssef El Azab 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Youssef Fawzi and Ghazl El Mahalla agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Youssef Fawzi 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Mohammad Sweti has his answer from Ghazl El Mahalla; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” El Sayed Mohsen after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Abdelrahim Amoory's mistake
The words a physio says slowly. 92 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.
“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 JS Kabylie, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Qadisiyah have kept their man, and JS Kabylie go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
$1.4M on the table at CSKA 1948. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The offer from MC Oran for Koceila Ait Idir was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at JS Kabylie is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.4M — a club that wants Soufiane Bayazid enough to be asked twice.
106 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. JS Kabylie lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
JS Kabylie had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Al-Fateh, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. JS Kabylie have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what JS Kabylie can pretend not to have heard.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $90.0K — a club that wants Mohamed Awad enough to be asked twice.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at JS Kabylie this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 115 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.
JS Kabylie asked and Ajax said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
JS Kabylie have gone to Al-Fateh with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what JS Kabylie can pretend not to have heard.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. JS Kabylie had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around JS Kabylie they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
JS Kabylie have gone to CS Constantine with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The words a physio says slowly. 131 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Olympique Akbou waiting with a shirt. Nobody at JS Kabylie is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
JS Kabylie and ES Setif have settled on $1.3M. 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Arthur Bada will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around JS Kabylie the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. ES Setif have kept their man, and JS Kabylie go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at JS Kabylie this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. JS Kabylie know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
“I did not go to Olympique Akbou to sit and watch. I want to come back to JS Kabylie and fight for my place.” 9 appearances in 49 matches say the rest.
138 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. JS Kabylie lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
JS Kabylie have gone to MC Alger with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The fee is $980.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. MC Alger drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CS Constantine have kept their man, and JS Kabylie go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Mohamed Moussa Koïta has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at JS Kabylie this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
MC Alger paid $260.0K and JS Kabylie took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
JS Kabylie offered $17.0K; MC Oran said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Billal Messaoudi provided it, and the 8.54 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.40 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
3 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.
Alexis Guendouz and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at JS Kabylie training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Idris El Mizouni 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Billal Messaoudi. 3‑1 against ES Setif, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Oualid Malki has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what JS Kabylie can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at JS Kabylie this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aly Abeid was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at JS Kabylie will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at JS Kabylie, and both men came out saying it was fine.