Marked for Sid Ahmed Lahmer
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Sep 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what MC Oran can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 Sep 2029
A fracture rules Ali Sobhi out for 79 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason MC Oran will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market24 Sep 2029
Alimi Sikiru has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around MC Oran they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Words exchanged at MC Oran
Ahmed Hassan 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.
Match22 Sep 2029
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Yacine Aliane. 1‑0 against MB Rouissat, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad24 Sep 2029
A row about effort at MC Oran
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Houari Baouche was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings24 Sep 2029
Marked 8.16 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad24 Sep 2029
5 new faces, and MC Oran 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.
The dugout24 Sep 2029
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Jun 2029
53 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. MC Oran lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market25 Jun 2029
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around MC Oran people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market25 Jun 2029
“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.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Sid Ahmed Lahmer arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Sid Ahmed Lahmer has, at MC Oran, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Ahmed Hassan 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 targets25 Jun 2029
MC Oran offered $56.0K; ES Mostaganem 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.
Squad25 Jun 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sid Ahmed Lahmer and MC Oran agree another 3 years.
Boardroom25 Jun 2029
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Issam Yazid has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means MC Oran have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2029
MC Oran have made the call to Bloemfontein Celtic. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market15 May 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Paradou is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad15 May 2028
A falling-out at Paradou
Adel Bouzida and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 May 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Rafik Zaimeche and Paradou agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout15 May 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.
Squad15 May 2028
Amayas Boudedja 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 dugout15 May 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ahmed Abdelkader trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout15 May 2028
“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.
The dugout15 May 2028
Tarek Hamadi has been promised minutes
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Tarek Hamadi has written the date down.
Squad15 May 2028
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Paradou would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
In brief
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Boardroom
The Paradou academy earns its keep
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Boardroom
The Paradou board choose calm
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad13 Mar 2028
The words a physio says slowly. 71 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.
Match11 Mar 2028
MB Rouissat will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Paradou were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad13 Mar 2028
18 goals and a season average of 7.43. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words exchanged at Paradou
Adel Bouzida 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 terraces13 Mar 2028
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Sid Ahmed Lahmer 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.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Marked 8.41 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Marked 8.18 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Marked 8.01 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.