There were 11 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
The terraces3 Dec 2029
The mood at ES Ben Aknoun has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Idir Mokeddem 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Benchaira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alessandro Pina and ES Ben Aknoun agree another 3 years.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Amar Serradjeddine Belgacem, and the manager let it.
The dugout3 Dec 2029
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 2‑3 Houssem Belkebla left the room before anybody could ask which.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Housseyn Selmi’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and ES Ben Aknoun needing him to play as if none of it matters.
0‑3 to Paradou, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Every paper's favourite story and every manager's least. What happened is being dealt with internally, which is the phrase clubs use when they would rather nobody asked again.
Idir Mokeddem 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Housseyn Selmi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
$190.0K settles it between the clubs for Aymen Mouyet
USM Alger have accepted the money. What ES Ben Aknoun do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Yacine Benaceur is 17, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Idir Mokeddem and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Mohamed Sylla 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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at ES Ben Aknoun, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at ES Ben Aknoun is running low.
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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. ES Ben Aknoun have done the hard part with CS Constantine, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Akram Djahnit 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. MC El Bayadh have kept their man, and ES Ben Aknoun go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Nobody at ES Ben Aknoun will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. ES Ben Aknoun will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The words a physio says slowly. 98 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.
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.
ES Ben Aknoun have gone to CS Constantine with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aymen Chaaraoui was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Alaa Eddine Aissani has written the date down.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at ES Ben Aknoun, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Mohamed Benchaira plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
97 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. ES Ben Aknoun lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and ES Mostaganem waiting with a shirt. Nobody at ES Ben Aknoun is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” ES Ben Aknoun have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Akram Djahnit 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 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. ASO Chlef have kept their man, and ES Ben Aknoun go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The mood at ES Ben Aknoun has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Boardroom19 Jun 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Olympique Akbou waiting with a shirt. Nobody at ES Ben Aknoun is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Islam Chahrour was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation ES Ben Aknoun are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Nobody at ES Ben Aknoun will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.