A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
1‑4 against CR Belouizdad, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdenasser Djoudar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Riyane Akacem 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.
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 Semelo Gueï is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Abdelkader Haddad trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
CR Belouizdad next, and one man in the JS Saoura dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and JS Saoura will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The offer went to ES Setif this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The offer went to CR Belouizdad this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
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. MC Alger have kept their man, and JS Saoura go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at JS Saoura, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
62 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. JS Saoura lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Riyane Akacem 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.
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.
ASO Chlef left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout21 Feb 2033
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 1‑2 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
14 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2032
$650.0K settles it between the clubs for Adiele Eriugo
ES Setif have accepted the money. What JS Saoura do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mohammed Bukari will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around JS Saoura the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The deal with USM Alger 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: MC Alger keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Mohammed Bukari has agreed terms with Olympique Akbou for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Riyane Akacem 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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutSofiane Touba asks for a word with the manager
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at JS Saoura is running low.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at JS Saoura, and it is not being withdrawn.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. JS Saoura will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The deal with MC Alger 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.
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.
JS Saoura have made the call to USM Alger. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
JS Saoura have made the call to MC Alger. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Nobody at JS Saoura 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. JS Saoura have done the hard part with MC Alger, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
$320.0K on the table at MC Alger. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Riyane Akacem 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.
Everybody at JS Saoura saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Nobody at JS Saoura 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.
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.
What was a back-page link has become a chant, and the chant is not friendly. JS Saoura would rather it were settled quietly, and it has stopped being quiet.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Aqtay Abdallah’s negotiating for him
The mood at JS Saoura 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at JS Saoura can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Riyane Akacem 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Gabriel Guillaume and JS Saoura agree another 3 years.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Ilyes Faical Haddouche was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what JS Saoura can pretend not to have heard.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at JS Saoura is running low.
MC Alger have accepted the money. What JS Saoura do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
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.
JS Saoura 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.
JS Saoura have made the call to MC Alger. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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 Abdenasser Djoudar is on it.
Nobody at JS Saoura 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sofiane Touba trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and JS Saoura will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
In brief
SquadThe training reports on Adel Belmadi are not good
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Dadi Mouaki
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what JS Saoura can pretend not to have heard.
Riyane Akacem 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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
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 Semelo Gueï is on it.
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 Aqtay Abdallah has written the date down.
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee JS Saoura could ask drops and the wages Dame Guèye can ask rise.
59 graduates, from a department now rated 7 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.