14 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.02 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Aly Abeid 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.
A 2‑0 win over CS Constantine, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Faouzi Mrezigue, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“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 Kabylie, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” JS Kabylie have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.81 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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 7.94 for the rest of it.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between JS Kabylie and MC Oran, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Aly Abeid 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.
Aimen Mahious had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and MC El Bayadh were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Two goals and a mark of 8.25 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Aly Abeid 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.
With 4 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
SquadWords at JS Kabylie training over how hard people work
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
ES Setif next, and one man in the JS Kabylie dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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 Reda Benchaa has written the date down.
“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 Kabylie, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at JS Kabylie the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Mohamed Réda Hamidi 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at JS Kabylie, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 4‑0, Faouzi Mrezigue could afford to be generous.
A brace, and Aimen Mahious takes the afternoon — 8.71
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Aimen Mahious provided it, and the 8.71 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
A 3‑1 win over USM Khenchela, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
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 Kabylie this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Faouzi Mrezigue could afford to be generous.
Paradou next, and one man in the JS Kabylie dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Every debut is a small story about the future: Amayes Sabri, 20 years old, off the academy pitches and into the first team. The parents in the stand will keep the programme.
JS Kabylie close the window on a squad of their own making
15 in and 2 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.
JS Kabylie had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at FC Villefranche, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. SC Aubagne Air Bel have kept their man, and JS Kabylie go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at JS Kabylie training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jaredi Teixeira 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation JS Kabylie are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Rayan Amari 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.
Nothing about this will be in a press release. A plan went upstairs, came back rejected, and the version of the club that would have existed in three years' time just quietly stopped being possible.
JS Kabylie spent a month trying to move him and nobody rang back. He trains with a squad that has told him where he stands, and both sides start counting down to the next one.
Aly Abeid 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Levski have kept their man, and JS Kabylie go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The name of Seif Benrabah has come up in conversations JS Kabylie were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Still no offer on the table, and Billal Messaoudi’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
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.
A loan enquiry to Stade de Reims: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
JS Kabylie have made the call to FC Nantes. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
In brief
The dugoutAimen Mahious knocks on the manager's door