Marked for Alaa Eddine Aissani
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad1 May 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 ES Ben Aknoun this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at ES Ben Aknoun training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Badis Bouamama 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 dugout1 May 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Housseyn Selmi'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 dugout1 May 2028
Akram Djahnit loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Akram Djahnit's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
Squad1 May 2028
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Alaa Eddine Aissani has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The dugout1 May 2028
Housseyn Selmi asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad1 May 2028
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at ES Ben Aknoun than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Market1 May 2028
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Badis Bouamama may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Market1 May 2028
3 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs ES Ben Aknoun money.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Jan 2028
Mohamed Sylla damages knee ligaments — 40 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 40 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.
Market17 Jan 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 ES Ben Aknoun, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets17 Jan 2028
The clubs have shaken hands with Paradou; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market17 Jan 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
A defender's goal wins it for ES Ben Aknoun — 7.89
1 for Rayane Abdelmadjid Mahrouz, marked 7.89, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Match15 Jan 2028
4 matches without a win for ES Ben Aknoun
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around ES Ben Aknoun are no longer polite ones.
Squad17 Jan 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 ES Ben Aknoun this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets17 Jan 2028
Paradou wanted more than $48.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
This is not rotation. Islam Chahrour has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at ES Ben Aknoun is pretending otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces3 Jan 2028
Anger at ES Ben Aknoun 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Mohamed Sylla damages knee ligaments — 55 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 55 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
9 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
Ramy Belaili has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at ES Ben Aknoun can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market3 Jan 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at ES Ben Aknoun
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Match1 Jan 2028
Whatever happens, ES Ben Aknoun do not lose
8 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Salah Eddine Bouziani 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match20 Nov 2027
13 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and CS Constantine were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Match22 Nov 2027
Every point is an argument now for ES Ben Aknoun
Position 14 and 6 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market22 Nov 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
7.27, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Squad22 Nov 2027
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 Ben Aknoun this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
This is not rotation. Islam Chahrour has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at ES Ben Aknoun is pretending otherwise.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at ES Ben Aknoun training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Housseyn Selmi 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 terraces22 Nov 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Alaa Eddine Aissani 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.
Match20 Nov 2027
A 2‑0 win over CS Constantine, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match23 Aug 2027
Every point is an argument now for ES Ben Aknoun
Position 16 and 21 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market23 Aug 2027
“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 Ben Aknoun can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
Everything agreed with USM Alger, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Abdelkader Tamimi 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Abdelkrim Oukali 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 dugout23 Aug 2027
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Mohamed Benchaira 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 terraces15 Feb 2027
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match13 Feb 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was Luke Daniels’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to ES Ben Aknoun.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdelkader Tamimi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Marked 7.74 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, ES Ben Aknoun had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Ramy Belaili could afford to be generous.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
Nobody at ES Ben Aknoun is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.