Marked for Sofiane Bennacer
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 May 2031
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason ES Mostaganem will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad19 May 2031
Naoufel Khacef 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.
Squad19 May 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ali Haroun was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout19 May 2031
Ali Haroun gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Ali Haroun is on it.
The dugout19 May 2031
Naoufel Khacef knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Naoufel Khacef trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market19 May 2031
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lounas Adjout signs something — a contract at ES Mostaganem or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Mar 2031
Naoufel Khacef 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 Mar 2031
Words at ES Mostaganem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ali Haroun 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.
Squad24 Mar 2031
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Sofiane Bennacer commits to ES Mostaganem for another 3 years.
The dugout24 Mar 2031
When it matters, Ali Haroun plays
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.
The dugout24 Mar 2031
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Anton Vogt chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Player ratings24 Mar 2031
Shots: 7. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Match22 Mar 2031
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. MB Rouissat defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
The dugout24 Mar 2031
Shifted about, taken off before the hour, asked to do somebody else's running — Abdallah Boukhanfer has had enough of being useful and would like to be picked. ES Mostaganem know, and have known for weeks.
Market24 Mar 2031
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Djibril Merouani’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings17 Mar 2031
No sign of nerves from Djibril Merouani at 21 — 7.97
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Djibril Merouani did not need any: 7.97, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The dugout17 Mar 2031
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” ES Mostaganem may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings17 Mar 2031
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.38 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad17 Mar 2031
Naoufel Khacef 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.
Squad17 Mar 2031
Ali Haroun 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 terraces17 Mar 2031
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match15 Mar 2031
It had gone 5 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
The dugout17 Mar 2031
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From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match21 Dec 2030
11 matches without a win for ES Mostaganem
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around ES Mostaganem are no longer polite ones.
Squad23 Dec 2030
Naoufel Khacef 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.
Squad23 Dec 2030
Words at ES Mostaganem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ali Haroun 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 dugout23 Dec 2030
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Match21 Dec 2030
A point taken on 95 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Match21 Dec 2030
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Player ratings23 Dec 2030
Ali Haroun beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 14. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout23 Dec 2030
Half-satisfied: Anton Vogt on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Looking ahead23 Dec 2030
USM Alger next, and one man in the ES Mostaganem dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.