Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order MB Rouissat prefer.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. MB Rouissat told Alex Daho something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MB Rouissat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Faouzi Bennacer on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
USM Alger go through and MB Rouissat go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Kheiredine Merzougui 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.
Something was said to Seif Benrabah and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Rezki Hamroune 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 Benali Benamar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Rezki Hamroune is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Faouzi Bennacer was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the MB Rouissat dressing room was either.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against MC Oran? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Siaka Bagayoko scored, was marked 7.94, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nadji Ben Kheira. 2‑0 against MC El Bayadh, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Redouane Maachou, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
9 new faces, and MB Rouissat are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
1 for Abdul Hamidu Fatawu, marked 7.81, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.39 for the rest of it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MB Rouissat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al Ahly have kept their man, and MB Rouissat go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against MC El Bayadh in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 15 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at FC Nantes is saying, and nobody at MB Rouissat is enjoying the guessing.
At 23 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.
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 finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
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.” Faouzi Bennacer chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. MB Rouissat have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
That is the business done at MB Rouissat until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Alex Daho 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.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
MB Rouissat asked and AS Saint-Etienne said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ali Mrezigue has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at MB Rouissat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benali Benamar 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.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rezki Hamroune trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
BoardroomMB Rouissat say no to the training-ground money
Kheiredine Merzougui 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.
MB Rouissat had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at FC Nantes, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Rezki Hamroune 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at MB Rouissat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benali Benamar 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.
MB Rouissat asked and Al Ahly said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The deal with FC Nantes 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 most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. MB Rouissat will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The name of Abdenacer Bensaci has come up in conversations MB Rouissat were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Sofiane Benaceur has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ali Benayada has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Rezki Hamroune 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 Benali Benamar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at MB Rouissat, another week without a signature from Kheiredine Merzougui.
Still no offer on the table, and Rezki Hamroune’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
MB Rouissat have made the call to JS Kabylie. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.