Marked for Oussama Bentaleb
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Dec 2026
33 days out for Nadjib Baouia after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. USM Khenchela will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match12 Dec 2026
0‑2 to USM Alger, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Oussama Bentaleb 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.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Badreddine Souyad, and the manager let it.
Match14 Dec 2026
Halfway: USM Khenchela sit in position 15
6 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hillal Belkebla was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Looking ahead14 Dec 2026
A test against the best for USM Khenchela
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 CR Belouizdad.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Nadjib Baouia out for 43 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.
Match5 Dec 2026
14 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and ASO Chlef were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
The terraces7 Dec 2026
Anger at USM Khenchela 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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Laid Ayad, 20, steals the show — 7.88
Marked 7.88 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The terraces7 Dec 2026
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match5 Dec 2026
Three points for USM Khenchela, 1‑0 the final word against ASO Chlef in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Serge Badjo
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Faik Amrane 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match14 Nov 2026
No end in sight to USM Khenchela's wait for a win
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at USM Khenchela has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad16 Nov 2026
64 days out for Nadjib Baouia after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. USM Khenchela will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Hillal Belkebla: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” USM Khenchela have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match14 Nov 2026
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Réda Boumechra 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 ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match14 Nov 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Nassim Bellahcene after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Faik Amrane 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Nov 2026
78 days out for Nadjib Baouia after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. USM Khenchela will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match31 Oct 2026
10 matches without a win for USM Khenchela
The run now stands at 10, and the questions being asked around USM Khenchela are no longer polite ones.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Aissa Benrahma
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. USM Khenchela lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match2 Nov 2026
Every point is an argument now for USM Khenchela
Position 15 and 3 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
7 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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match31 Oct 2026
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at USM Khenchela can tell you which week it ends in.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Faik Amrane, and the manager let it.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Nadjib Baouia out for 92 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 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Aissa Benrahma
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. USM Khenchela lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match17 Oct 2026
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” USM Khenchela may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Oussama Bentaleb 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.
The dugout19 Oct 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Faik Amrane 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 dugout19 Oct 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Nassim Bellahcene after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
99 days out for Nadjib Baouia after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. USM Khenchela will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 38. 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Match7 Oct 2026
CR Belouizdad go through and USM Khenchela go home, 0‑0 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Match10 Oct 2026
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad12 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 USM Khenchela this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match10 Oct 2026
1‑2 to Paradou, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Twelve yards, a goalkeeper guessing, and it still did not go in. He will take the next one, and every soul in the ground will hold their breath.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Too much change too quickly at USM Khenchela
10 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Oct 2026
Nadjib Baouia breaks a bone — 106 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 106 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match3 Oct 2026
5 matches without a win for USM Khenchela
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around USM Khenchela are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Réda Boumechra and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout5 Oct 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
MC Oran left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Rachid Belmadi and USM Khenchela agree another 3 years.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at USM Khenchela training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Faik Amrane 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2026
Nadjib Baouia breaks a bone — 113 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 113 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match26 Sep 2026
No end in sight to USM Khenchela's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at USM Khenchela has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Ammar Oukil beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Réda Boumechra 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.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Laid Ayad 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
The goal that put ES Ben Aknoun ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when USM Khenchela equalised, 4 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Serge Badjo gets it from the manager
“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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Marked 7.35 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, USM Khenchela had the best player on the pitch.
Match26 Sep 2026
It needed Laid Ayad to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against ES Ben Aknoun, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 Aug 2026
A fracture rules Ayobami Junior out for 102 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and USM Khenchela did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
USM Khenchela asked and JS Saoura said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Faik Amrane was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Oussama Bentaleb 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 targets31 Aug 2026
Olympique Lyonnais have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
A loan move for Ahmed Belmadi is in the works
USM Khenchela have made the call to CS Constantine. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Looking ahead31 Aug 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Badreddine Souyad’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and USM Khenchela needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and JS Saoura did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Sport Recife is saying, and nobody at JS Saoura is enjoying the guessing.
Squad24 Aug 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.
Squad24 Aug 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 targets24 Aug 2026
JS Saoura asked and Swansea City said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market24 Aug 2026
USM Khenchela are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. JS Saoura will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Flamengo have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Riyad Touba and JS Saoura agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Riyad Touba
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Aug 2026
Ayobami Junior breaks a bone — 111 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 111 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The deal with JS Saoura is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Réda Boumechra 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at USM Khenchela training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nadjib Baouia 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
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.
Market24 Aug 2026
The name of Christopher Samangwa has come up in conversations USM Khenchela were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and USM Khenchela waiting with a shirt. Nobody at JS Saoura is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Porto is saying, and nobody at JS Saoura is enjoying the guessing.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Adel Bouchiba 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.
Squad17 Aug 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Plymouth Argyle have kept their man, and JS Saoura go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market17 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Olympique Akbou have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mohamed Taib. The answer from JS Saoura has not changed — yet.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A loan move for Anas Alaoui is in the works
JS Saoura have made the call to Lecco. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Cruzeiro: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Market17 Aug 2026
The Alimi Sikiru talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. JS Saoura know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
$440.0K. No player has ever cost USM Khenchela more, and expectation arrives with him.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with JS Saoura, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad17 Aug 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 USM Khenchela this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Mohamed Amran from MC Oran for $440.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Nadjib Baouia 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
USM Khenchela asked and MC Alger said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.