0‑3 against JS Kabylie, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Papy Djilobodji 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and MC El Bayadh know it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at MC El Bayadh, another week without a signature from Adel Ghanem.
Words at MC El Bayadh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Papy Djilobodji 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at MC El Bayadh, another week without a signature from Adel Ghanem.
“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 El Bayadh, and both men came out saying it was fine.
ASO Chlef next, and one man in the MC El Bayadh dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. MC El Bayadh know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Papy Djilobodji 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.
MC El Bayadh offered $140.0K; MB Rouissat said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at MC El Bayadh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdellah Meddah 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 happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 10 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
MC El Bayadh have gone to MB Rouissat with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Papy Djilobodji 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.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
MC El Bayadh asked and JS Kabylie 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 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Sofiane Benaceur is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Bilal Ounas is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Islam Touba 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Papy Djilobodji and MC El Bayadh agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
MC El Bayadh have gone to MB Rouissat with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Papy Djilobodji 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.
MC El Bayadh asked and CS Constantine said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation MC El Bayadh are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The offer went to JS Kabylie 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.
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 El Bayadh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
MC El Bayadh asked and CS Constantine said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ghilas Belgacem and MC El Bayadh agree another 3 years.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation MC El Bayadh are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“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 El Bayadh can pretend not to have heard.
Everything agreed with Olympique Akbou, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Ammar El Orfi 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. JS Kabylie have kept their man, and MC El Bayadh go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Adel Ghanem trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 El Bayadh can pretend not to have heard.
$5.0K on the table at ES Ben Aknoun. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. MC Oran have kept their man, and MC El Bayadh go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and MC El Bayadh know it.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. MC El Bayadh told Abdelillah Barkat something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Mamadu Baio 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.
5 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Adel Ghanem trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ahmed Nabil Manga and MC El Bayadh agree another 2 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bakr El Helali was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at MC El Bayadh can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Amar Serradjeddine Belgacem 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” MC El Bayadh have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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 El Bayadh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at MC El Bayadh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bakr El Helali 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for MC El Bayadh is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
It needed Mohammed Fodil Belkhadem to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Paradou, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Rayan Karabila has come out of that comparison in the side, and MC El Bayadh have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 2‑2, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. MC El Bayadh will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Ahmed Nabil Manga 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 Bakr El Helali was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mohamed Toumi. 1‑0 against JS Kabylie, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at MC El Bayadh can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Ammar El Orfi 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.
Mohamed Toumi 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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Abdelkadir Salhi’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and MC El Bayadh needing him to play as if none of it matters.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ahmed Nabil Manga and MC El Bayadh agree another 2 years.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at MC El Bayadh can tell you which week it ends in.
Ahmed Nabil Manga 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. MC El Bayadh will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Omar Mahrez after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.