Dean Dala

Goalkeeper - ES Ben Aknoun
16 Mar 2029
Friday
Process

Marked for Dean Dala

128 Edition

The ES Ben Aknoun Gazette

8 Jan 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Abdeljalil Saâd damages knee ligaments — 59 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 59 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.

Match

ES Ben Aknoun sink to position 16

7 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.

Market

Mohamed Mouaataz Khenniche agrees terms with ES Mostaganem

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around ES Ben Aknoun people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Boardroom

ES Ben Aknoun spell it out for Mehdi Bensebaini

The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Mehdi Bensebaini has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.

Transfer targets

Fee done, terms next for Che Malone

ES Ben Aknoun and USM Alger have settled on $2.3M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.

Market

Abdeljalil Saâd hands in a written request

“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.

The dugout

Dean Dala keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” ES Ben Aknoun may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Transfer targets

Mohammed Reyad Lezoul is a medical away from ES Ben Aknoun

The deal with ES Mostaganem 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.

Squad

Chamseddine Derradji signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Chamseddine Derradji and ES Ben Aknoun agree another 2 years.

In brief

Back issues
115 Edition

The ES Ben Aknoun Gazette

9 Oct 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

The terraces

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.

Match

The cup run ends for ES Ben Aknoun

0‑1 against MC Alger, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.

Squad

Mohamed Mouaataz Khenniche stands alone

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.

Match

No end in sight to ES Ben Aknoun's wait for a win

4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at ES Ben Aknoun has to find a result from somewhere.

Player ratings

Badis Bouamama beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

Merouane Boussalem signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Merouane Boussalem commits to ES Ben Aknoun for another 2 years.

Squad

Words exchanged at ES Ben Aknoun

Mohamed Benchaira 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.

Squad

Housseyn Selmi 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.

Match

Paradou take the points off ES Ben Aknoun

Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

In brief