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 Yacine Goudjil, and the manager let it.
The dugout24 Sep 2029
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Islam Guedioura to a room that had heard them before.
Nobody at MC 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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. MC Alger know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
CR Belouizdad next, and one man in the MC Alger dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
A brace, and Salah Mohsen takes the afternoon — 8.58
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Salah Mohsen provided it, and the 8.58 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at MC Alger is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
MC Alger close the window on a squad of their own making
17 in and 19 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
A new deal for the man in the dugout, and the clearest thing a board can say without calling a press conference about it. Stability is cheap to promise and expensive to deliver.
Zinedine Ferhat 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.
In brief
SquadWords at MC Alger training over how hard people work
“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 MC Alger, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MC Alger this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bakary Haïdara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Mamaye Coulibaly has his answer from MC Alger; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at MC Alger. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at MC Alger is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Ajax is saying, and nobody at MC Alger is enjoying the guessing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nahitan Nández was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Anis Khemaissia and MC Alger agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad20 Aug 2029
7 new faces, and MC Alger 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.
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 Yacine Goudjil is on it.
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. MC Alger lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Mohamed Zoungrana 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 Killian Barrett was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Oualaa Moundhir Bouzekri and MC Alger agree another 3 years.
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 Merwane Khelif is on it.
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. MC Alger lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 MC Alger, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. USM Alger have kept their man, and MC Alger go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Zinedine Ferhat and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Words at MC Alger training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahitan Nández 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.
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 Soufiane Bayazid is on it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Zinedine Ferhat 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.
$170.0K was the most the club would pay and MC El Bayadh were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bakary Haïdara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Merwane Khelif is on 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 MC Alger, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at MC Alger, another week without a signature from Walid Ouabdi.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee MC Alger could ask drops and the wages Bakary Haïdara can ask rise.
Dramane Kamagaté has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
In brief
MatchContinental football is in reach for MC Alger
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mehdi Boucherit will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around MC Alger the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MC Alger this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bakary Haïdara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Yacine Goudjil is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bakary Haïdara trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and MC Alger have no good answer.
The offer from USM Alger for JC Ngando 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.
Zinedine Ferhat 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.
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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. MC Alger will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
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 Soufiane Bayazid has written the date down.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Bakary Haïdara’s negotiating for him
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Paradou waiting with a shirt. Nobody at MC Alger is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
$1.3M on the table at USM 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what MC Alger can pretend not to have heard.
Zinedine Ferhat 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Saad Boussadia has just signed for MC Alger, and for once the answer mattered.
Add another name to the list: USM Alger have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about JC Ngando. The answer from MC Alger has not changed — yet.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what MC Alger can pretend not to have heard.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. MC Alger have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Words at MC Alger training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bakary Haïdara 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.
Manchester United 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.
SuperSport United 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at MC Alger has been clear about where JC Ngando stands, which is more than many ever get.
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. MC Alger lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what MC Alger can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MC Alger this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 May 2029
Words at MC Alger training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bakary Haïdara 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at MC Alger can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
10 clean sheets from 26 appearances at Al Nasr. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
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 Zinedine Ferhat is on it.
71 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. MC Alger lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
10 shut-outs in 26 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Killian Barrett has been having a lot of them.
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 Zinedine Ferhat is on it.
80 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. MC Alger lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Zinedine Ferhat 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 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Haruna Abubakar has his answer from MC Alger; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The first defeat in 19 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Olympique Akbou; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Frank Angong will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around MC Alger the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Toufik Moussaoui has agreed terms with CS Constantine for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mohamed Awad will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around MC Alger the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MC Alger this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at MC Alger is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Alexandre Oukidja is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Zinedine Ferhat 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.” Ishak Talal Boussouf and MC Alger agree another 3 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bakary Haïdara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 29 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
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 Mohamed Awad is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at MC Alger. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. MC Alger lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The offer from ES Setif for Frank Angong 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.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. MC Alger have paid $1.7M for Killian Barrett, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MC Alger this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 26 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at MC Alger, another week without a signature from Bakary Haïdara.
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. MC Alger lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Zinedine Ferhat 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.
Add another name to the list: ES Setif have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Frank Angong. The answer from MC Alger has not changed — yet.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mamelodi Sundowns have kept their man, and MC Alger go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. MC Alger know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
MC Alger asked and Charlton Athletic said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $3.5M has been paid because Dramane Kamagaté is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mohamed Benkhemassa will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around MC Alger the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Zinedine Ferhat and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words at MC Alger training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Glody Likonza 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: ES Mostaganem will make the call about Toufik Moussaoui this week. MC Alger have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. MC Alger know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
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 Merwane Khelif is on it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around MC Alger they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Mohamed Zoungrana 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Glody Likonza was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at MC 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Glody Likonza trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 JC Ngando has written the date down.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Aimen Bouguerra will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around MC Alger the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Zinedine Ferhat 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.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at MC Alger training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bakary Haïdara 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.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Hocine Dehiri has moved up it.
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 Mohamed Awad is on it.
2 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at MC Alger has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
The offer from MB Rouissat for Frank Angong 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.
“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 MC Alger, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MC Alger this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: ES Setif have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mohamed Benkhemassa. The answer from MC Alger has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ayoub Ghezala was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Arthur Sales is in the works