Marked for Riyad Brahimi
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market25 Aug 2036
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Olympique Akbou waiting with a shirt. Nobody at USM Alger is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market25 Aug 2036
USM Alger say no — this time
The offer from ASO Chlef for Riyad Brahimi was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad25 Aug 2036
Dramane Kamagaté and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets25 Aug 2036
A loan move for Àlex Delgado is in the works
USM Alger have made the call to Stade Rennais. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout25 Aug 2036
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 Abdelmoumen Benchabane is on it.
Squad25 Aug 2036
A row about effort at USM Alger
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo Matavele was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market25 Aug 2036
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lassana Traoré signs something — a contract at USM Alger or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout25 Aug 2036
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 Ramadan El Hadary has written the date down.
The dugout25 Aug 2036
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Hicham Feghouli trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market18 Aug 2036
“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.
Market18 Aug 2036
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market18 Aug 2036
Only the photograph left for Omar Atal
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Omar Atal will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around USM Alger the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad18 Aug 2036
Words exchanged at USM Alger
Dramane Kamagaté 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.
Transfer targets18 Aug 2036
USM Alger asked and Stade Rennais said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market18 Aug 2036
The name of Riyad Brahimi has come up in conversations USM Alger were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Transfer targets18 Aug 2036
Stade Rennais have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout18 Aug 2036
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 Wajid Enjolras is on it.
Squad18 Aug 2036
A row about effort at USM Alger
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danisch Dilrosun was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market21 Jul 2036
“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.
Market21 Jul 2036
Only the photograph left for Omar Atal
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Omar Atal will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around USM Alger the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad21 Jul 2036
Words exchanged at USM Alger
Dramane Kamagaté 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 dugout21 Jul 2036
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.
Squad21 Jul 2036
A row about effort at USM Alger
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo Matavele was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market21 Jul 2036
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Lassana Traoré’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Match21 Jul 2036
USM Alger have something to play for
Position 4 on 59 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
The dugout21 Jul 2036
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 Ramadan El Hadary has written the date down.
The dugout21 Jul 2036
Riyad Brahimi 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 Riyad Brahimi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market2 Jun 2036
Ahmed Touba 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 USM Alger can pretend not to have heard.
Squad2 Jun 2036
Words exchanged at USM Alger
Dramane Kamagaté 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.
Transfer targets2 Jun 2036
USM Alger asked and Paris Saint-Germain said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad2 Jun 2036
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Yuliwes Bellache has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Market2 Jun 2036
Simo told to find a new club
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Simo has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at USM Alger.
Squad2 Jun 2036
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mourad Ghoulam and USM Alger agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout2 Jun 2036
Nobody at USM Alger 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.
Market2 Jun 2036
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at USM Alger, another week without a signature from Yuliwes Bellache.
In brief
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Squad
Words at USM Alger training over how hard people work
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The dugout
No hiding place for Riyad Brahimi
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Boardroom
Open for business: USM Alger enter the window
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad18 Dec 2034
The words a physio says slowly. 47 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.
Player ratings18 Dec 2034
Two goals and a mark of 8.83 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings18 Dec 2034
At 36 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.19, and nobody on the pitch better.
The dugout18 Dec 2034
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market18 Dec 2034
“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 USM Alger, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad18 Dec 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at USM Alger this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Dec 2034
A row about effort at USM Alger
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dramane Kamagaté was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match16 Dec 2034
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dramane Kamagaté. 2‑0 against Olympique Akbou, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout18 Dec 2034
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Amine Ghoulam kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.