Marked for Oussama Bentaleb
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market11 Jan 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at JS Saoura, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” JS Saoura may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 25. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Everything agreed with Montpellier HSC, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Boardroom11 Jan 2027
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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Constant Wayou 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A row about effort at JS Saoura
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ismail Saadi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
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 Jan 2027
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 38. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mohamed Taib
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. JS Saoura lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Ismail Saadi 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at JS Saoura
Anas Yusuf 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
Three points for JS Saoura, 1‑0 the final word against USM Khenchela in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Semelo Gueï was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.24. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Ramy Guedioura could afford to be generous.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Oussama Bentaleb, and the manager let it.
Squad21 Dec 2026
One booking too many, and a game watched from the stand. JS Saoura lose him for the most avoidable reason in the sport.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Oct 2026
51 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. JS Saoura lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match14 Oct 2026
Paradou ended it 0‑1. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad19 Oct 2026
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 Saoura this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at JS Saoura training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ismail Saadi 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Constant Wayou. 2‑0 against MB Rouissat, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Nobody on the pitch touched Alimi Sikiru
7.79, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. JS Saoura had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Ramy Guedioura on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The plan did not have a place for Constant Wayou
Nobody at JS Saoura 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Sep 2026
The words a physio says slowly. 73 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at JS Saoura
Constant Wayou 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at JS Saoura training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ismail Saadi 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 dugout28 Sep 2026
“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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
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 Ramy Guedioura left the room before anybody could ask which.
Looking ahead28 Sep 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Oussama Bentaleb’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and JS Saoura needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 11. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Sep 2026
94 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. JS Saoura lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market7 Sep 2026
“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 Saoura, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 13 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at JS Saoura until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at JS Saoura
Adel Bouchiba 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A row about effort at JS Saoura
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ismail Saadi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Levski have kept their man, and JS Saoura go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
8 new faces, and JS Saoura are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
JS Saoura say no to the training-ground money
The plan went upstairs and came back down. Nothing about that will make a headline anywhere else, and everybody who works at the training ground will remember it for years.
Looking ahead7 Sep 2026
ES Setif next, and one man in the JS Saoura dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.