Marked for Lyes Aoucheta
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Nov 2029
A fracture rules Nadjib Baouia out for 104 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason USM Khenchela will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Réda Boumechra and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Wilfred Nkaya 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.
Match24 Nov 2029
JS Saoura left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout26 Nov 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.
The dugout26 Nov 2029
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad26 Nov 2029
One booking too many, and Youcef Douar sits out. USM Khenchela lose him for the sort of avoidable reason that makes a manager's week longer.
Market26 Nov 2029
Zakaria Saidi is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at USM Khenchela has been clear about where Zakaria Saidi stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout26 Nov 2029
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Nov 2029
A fracture rules Nadjib Baouia out for 111 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason USM Khenchela will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad19 Nov 2029
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings19 Nov 2029
Ammar Oukil, 33, rolls back the years — 8.11
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.11 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Wilfred Nkaya 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.
Player ratings19 Nov 2029
Ninety minutes of Merouane Zerrouki at his very best
Marked 9.99. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at USM Khenchela.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Words at USM Khenchela training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ammar Oukil 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 ratings19 Nov 2029
Ninety minutes of Wilfred Nkaya at his very best
Marked 8.79. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at USM Khenchela.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Nov 2029
A fracture rules Nadjib Baouia out for 118 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason USM Khenchela will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match10 Nov 2029
14 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and MC El Bayadh were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Match10 Nov 2029
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings12 Nov 2029
A brace, and Merouane Zerrouki takes the afternoon — 9.02
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Merouane Zerrouki provided it, and the 9.02 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market12 Nov 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at USM Khenchela is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Words at USM Khenchela training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wilfred Nkaya 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 ratings12 Nov 2029
The game went through Ammar Oukil — 7.66
Marked 7.66 on 11 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Squad12 Nov 2029
200 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Player ratings12 Nov 2029
Ninety minutes of Wilfred Nkaya at his very best
Marked 8.15. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at USM Khenchela.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market11 Sep 2028
The deal that would have taken Khanyisa Mayo to MC Oran has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to CR Belouizdad with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Market11 Sep 2028
“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 CR Belouizdad, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad11 Sep 2028
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.
Transfer targets11 Sep 2028
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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mehdi Boudjemaa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad11 Sep 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Fouad Rahmani commits to CR Belouizdad for another 4 years.
Market11 Sep 2028
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. CR Belouizdad will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad11 Sep 2028
The formation has left Fouad Rahmani behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. CR Belouizdad will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Market11 Sep 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at CR Belouizdad, another week without a signature from Djaber Kaassis.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Aug 2028
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
Market28 Aug 2028
“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 CR Belouizdad, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout28 Aug 2028
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Market28 Aug 2028
The interest is real enough to have reached print. CR Belouizdad have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Naoufel Khacef and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Lyes Aoucheta is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Aymen Bendaoud has improved at 27, which nobody expected
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.
Transfer targets28 Aug 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Platinum Stars have kept their man, and CR Belouizdad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout28 Aug 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mohamed Ali Ben Hammouda trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Aug 2028
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CR Belouizdad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout14 Aug 2028
“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.
Market14 Aug 2028
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Lofti Boussouar had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market14 Aug 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market14 Aug 2028
“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 CR Belouizdad, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad14 Aug 2028
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Transfer targets14 Aug 2028
No deal for Frank Angong at that price
CR Belouizdad offered $610.0K; MC Alger 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.
Squad14 Aug 2028
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.
Squad14 Aug 2028
14 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
Uneasy
Squad17 Jul 2028
71 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CR Belouizdad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market17 Jul 2028
Lyes Aoucheta 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 CR Belouizdad can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
CR Belouizdad asked and SuperSport United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad17 Jul 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CR Belouizdad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Mehdi Boudjemaa 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.
The dugout17 Jul 2028
“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.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
A loan move for Lebogang Furman is in the works
CR Belouizdad have made the call to Platinum Stars. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout17 Jul 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mohamed Ali Ben Hammouda trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout17 Jul 2028
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.