97 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. ES Setif lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. ES Setif will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.36 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. John Auta has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. ES Setif will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
The words a physio says slowly. 104 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 120 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Position 3, 33 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Amine Bellahcene will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around ES Setif 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 ES Setif this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
111 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. ES Setif lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason ES Setif will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against MB Rouissat, and it could have been more.
Player ratings10 Dec 2029
A brace, and Noa Cervantes takes the afternoon — 8.64
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Noa Cervantes provided it, and the 8.64 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.13 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ES Setif is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Cheickna Samaké 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.
121 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. ES Setif lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. ES Setif will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
MC El Bayadh will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. ES Setif were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Yanis Hamache 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.
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.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. MC El Bayadh spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Marked 8.28 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
129 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. ES Setif lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 144 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The first defeat in 10 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against CS Constantine; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Yanis Hamache 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.
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
136 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. ES Setif lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 2, 27 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. ES Setif will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Amine Bellahcene will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around ES Setif 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 ES Setif this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A goal on 96 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Words at ES Setif training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Redouane Maachou 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason ES Setif will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Adam Bensebaini will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around ES Setif the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Cheickna Samaké 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 first defeat in 5 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against MC Oran; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
MC Alger next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. ES Setif will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Yanis Hamache 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.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason ES Setif will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.30 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Yanis Hamache 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about ES Setif and Paradou in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Lucas Cano. 4‑2 against Paradou, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Match27 Oct 2029
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for ES Setif. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 73 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.29 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ES Setif they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Cheickna Samaké 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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. USM Khenchela tried to reorganise, ES Setif did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. ES Setif lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason ES Setif will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Daniel Gnahoua provided it, and the 8.95 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 ES Setif is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. ES Setif lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Successful dribbles: 35. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 89 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” ES Setif have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The words a physio says slowly. 35 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. ES Setif will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Yanis Hamache 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 Redouane Maachou was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Kamel Hamidi has his answer from ES Setif; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout1 Oct 2029
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.” Houssem Ghoulam, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
45 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. ES Setif lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. ES Setif will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ES Setif they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Abdelkrim Namani 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.
53 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. ES Setif lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ES Setif is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Adam Bensebaini is 17, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
61 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. ES Setif lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.81 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Ajax is saying, and nobody at ES Setif is enjoying the guessing.
Yanis Hamache 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.
68 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. ES Setif lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have shaken hands with USM Alger; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
16 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around ES Setif people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
Deadline passes with 14 signed and 17 gone
That is the business done at ES Setif 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.
ES Setif moved before anybody else could: a new deal for Houssem Ghoulam, agreed quietly and announced loudly. Boards extend managers for many reasons; the good one is the one this looks like.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Hasaacas is saying, and nobody at ES Setif is enjoying the guessing.
The words a physio says slowly. 77 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ES Setif they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ES Setif this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
ES Setif offered $27.0K; USM Alger 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cosenza have kept their man, and ES Setif go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Add another name to the list: MB Rouissat have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Adam Bensebaini. The answer from ES Setif has not changed — yet.
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.
86 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. ES Setif lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. USM Alger have kept their man, and ES Setif go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dhirar Bensaadallah will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around ES Setif the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Everything agreed with Tranmere Rovers, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 17 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cheickna Samaké was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
95 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. ES Setif lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Yanis Hamache 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. USM Alger have kept their man, and ES Setif go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Tranmere Rovers 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.
Squad13 Aug 2029
6 new faces, and ES Setif 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.
In brief
The dugoutDaniel Gnahoua has become a man the manager trusts
103 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. ES Setif lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. ES Setif have done the hard part with USM Alger, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ayoub Ghezala is living that version at ES Setif, and it tends to show in the first month.
The deal that would have taken Adam Bensebaini to MB Rouissat has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to ES Setif with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Yanis Hamache 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 offer went to ES Mostaganem 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.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. ES Setif will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
77 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. ES Setif lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The offer went to USM Alger 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.
The offer from MC Alger for Issam Abdelhamid Naim 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ES Setif they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ES Setif 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. Livorno have kept their man, and ES Setif go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Add another name to the list: MB Rouissat have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Adam Bensebaini. The answer from ES Setif has not changed — yet.
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.
84 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. ES Setif lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dhirar Bensaadallah will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around ES Setif the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Daniel Gnahoua 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.
ES Setif 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.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Words at ES Setif training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aïssa Boudechicha 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 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 words a physio says slowly. 91 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. ES Setif will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and MB Rouissat waiting with a shirt. Nobody at ES Setif is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 ES Setif, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at ES Setif can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ES Setif this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
98 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. ES Setif lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and MC Alger waiting with a shirt. Nobody at ES Setif is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Everything agreed with USM Alger, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
ES Setif offered $1.1M; Paradou 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 rules permit it and it stings anyway. Dhirar Bensaadallah has agreed terms with MC Oran for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Yanis Hamache 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.
105 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. ES Setif lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 30 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 ES Setif, and it is not being withdrawn.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. ES Setif will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
ES Setif have gone to Paradou 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.
The offer from ES Ben Aknoun for Mohamed Benlebna 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ES Setif they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
ES Setif have gone to CR Belouizdad 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.
113 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. ES Setif lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 38 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
ES Setif have gone to USM Alger 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ES Setif is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cheickna Samaké was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at ES Setif 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.
121 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. ES Setif lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ES Setif is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” ES Setif have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what ES Setif can pretend not to have heard.
Yanis Hamache 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Abdelhafid Benamara has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means ES Setif have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Livorno have kept their man, and ES Setif go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
ES Setif and USM Alger have settled on $5.1M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around ES Setif people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to USM Alger; ES Setif go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
Yanis Hamache 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Cheickna Samaké has his answer from ES Setif; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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 Daniel Gnahoua is on it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what ES Setif can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ES Setif they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Daniel Gnahoua 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 phone has started ringing about Issam Abdelhamid Naim again, and this time the name on the line is Paradou. ES Setif are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cheickna Samaké was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at ES Setif 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at ES Setif, another week without a signature from Zakaria Mansouri.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ES Setif they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aïssa Boudechicha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ES Setif this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Lucas Cano is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Aïssa Boudechicha trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ES Setif they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aïssa Boudechicha 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at ES Setif, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Prince Buregeya has written the date down.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ES Setif they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what ES Setif can pretend not to have heard.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at ES Setif can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ES Setif this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. ES Setif will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
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 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 Daniel Gnahoua is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. ES Setif know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ES Setif they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Yanis Hamache 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.
Squad7 May 2029
Words at ES Setif training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aïssa Boudechicha 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 Yanis Hamache is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. ES Setif know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Position 4, 58 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ES Setif they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Yanis Hamache 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 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.
Nobody at ES Setif 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.
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 Redouane Maachou has written the date down.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ES Setif is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cheickna Samaké was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; ES Setif are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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 Zakaria Mansouri 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.
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee ES Setif could ask drops and the wages Dhirar Bensaadallah can ask rise.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 20 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ES Setif is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Daniel Gnahoua 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Words at ES Setif training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aïssa Boudechicha 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 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. ES Setif know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. ES Setif will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ES Setif is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aïssa Boudechicha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Mohamed Bouderbala 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.
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.” Mohamed Benlebna has his answer from ES Setif; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. ES Setif know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 36 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 11 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ES Setif they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Yanis Hamache 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 43 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 90th minute. MB Rouissat will replay every second of the added time for a week.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ES Setif is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason ES Setif will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ES Setif is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ES Setif this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Lucas Cano. 2‑0 against MC El Bayadh, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason ES Setif will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There were 87 minutes on the clock and CS Constantine had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and ES Setif did not stop to explain themselves.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ES Setif is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; ES Setif are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and ES Setif now know that too.
Yanis Hamache 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason ES Setif will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
14 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ES Setif is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Yanis Hamache 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.
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 Lucas Cano is on it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason ES Setif will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
13 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ES Setif is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Riad Benayad 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 Aïssa Boudechicha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. ES Setif will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings19 Feb 2029
A brace, and Riad Benayad takes the afternoon — 9.27
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Riad Benayad provided it, and the 9.27 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Zakaria Mansouri will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around ES Setif the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 ES Setif, and it is not being withdrawn.
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings19 Feb 2029
Noa Cervantes was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.14. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. ES Setif will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.15 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ES Setif they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Yanis Hamache 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.
ES Setif asked and MC Oran said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Marked 8.92 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. ES Setif will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Successful dribbles: 26. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 7 gone
That is the business done at ES Setif 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ES Setif is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Yanis Hamache 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 Aïssa Boudechicha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
Player ratingsThe afternoon belonged to Noa Cervantes
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. ES Setif will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what ES Setif can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ES Setif they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
A 2‑0 win over ES Ben Aknoun, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings29 Jan 2029
Noa Cervantes was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.59. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 115 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Two goals and a mark of 9.20 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and USM Alger waiting with a shirt. Nobody at ES Setif is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ES Setif is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.03 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what ES Setif can pretend not to have heard.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Zakaria Mansouri 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ES Setif this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Daniel Gnahoua. 3‑1 against Olympique Akbou, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. ES Setif will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around ES Setif people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Yanis Hamache 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.
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at ES Setif has been clear about where Dhirar Bensaadallah stands, which is more than many ever get.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around ES Setif people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” ES Setif have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 ES Setif know 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 ES Setif this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
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.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. ES Setif had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
“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 ES Setif, and it is not being withdrawn.
Riad Benayad 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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Words at ES Setif training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aïssa Boudechicha 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 long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and ES Setif now know that too.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
4‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings25 Dec 2028
A brace, and Lucas Cano takes the afternoon — 8.27
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lucas Cano provided it, and the 8.27 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ES Setif they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ES Setif this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. ES Setif lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ES Setif is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Daniel Gnahoua. 2‑0 against JS Saoura, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cheickna Samaké was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Mohamed Bouderbala 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 words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
MB Rouissat will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. ES Setif were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.05 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Yanis Hamache 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between ES Setif and MB Rouissat, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
At 22 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.
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. ES Setif lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Successful dribbles: 40. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” ES Setif have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Player ratings4 Dec 2028
Riad Benayad was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.00. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Something was said to Oussama Chita and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.94 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ES Setif they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ES Setif this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Mounir El Mehdi Mahadane has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
CS Constantine made ES Setif work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Words at ES Setif training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cheickna Samaké 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.
Successful dribbles: 26. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ES Setif is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aïssa Boudechicha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at ES Setif 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Houssem Ghoulam after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aïssa Boudechicha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Redouane Maachou 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.
Nobody at ES Setif 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.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
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.” Houssem Ghoulam chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Kamel Hamidi’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and ES Setif needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Successful dribbles: 28. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.10 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at ES Setif can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.00, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Words at ES Setif training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cheickna Samaké 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.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Zakaria Mansouri 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Adam Bensebaini will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around ES Setif the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Words at ES Setif training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aïssa Boudechicha 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.
A point taken on 85 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Cheickna Samaké 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 point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Houssem Ghoulam after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Nobody at ES Setif 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.
In brief
SquadThe division's best last weekend was a ES Setif man
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Kamel Hamidi
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what ES Setif can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” ES Setif have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Issam Abdelhamid Naim will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around ES Setif the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Yanis Hamache 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Words at ES Setif training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cheickna Samaké 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.
Yanis Hamache 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 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.
Nobody at ES Setif 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.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Daniel Gnahoua obliged against Olympique Akbou. 2‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is ES Setif.
Two goals and a mark of 9.10 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Two goals and a mark of 8.88 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” ES Setif have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
He is 22 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.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” ES Setif have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ES Setif they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Riad Benayad 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 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. Issam Abdelhamid Naim will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around ES Setif the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at ES Setif can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending 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.
A point taken on 96 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Issam Abdelhamid Naim 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.
Successful dribbles: 30. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Yanis Hamache 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Houssem Ghoulam after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Mohamed Hamek has his answer from ES Setif; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” ES Setif have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.04, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Kamel Hamidi has improved at 32, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cheickna Samaké was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ES Setif this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around ES Setif people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” ES Setif may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 13 signed and 10 gone
That is the business done at ES Setif 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.
“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 ES Setif know it.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ES Setif they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mohamed Benlebna is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Yanis Hamache 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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Brahim Benzaza has improved at 31, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
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 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 Cheickna Samaké is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Tarek Bousseder signs something — a contract at ES Setif or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at ES Setif, another week without a signature from Dhirar Bensaadallah.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Issam Abdelhamid Naim is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Yanis Hamache 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.
ES Setif 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cheickna Samaké 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Riad Benayad 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.
At 32 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.
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 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 Zakaria Mansouri is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at ES Setif. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at ES Setif, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
BoardroomThe ES Setif production line keeps running
$1.3M was the most the club would pay and MC Alger 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mehdi Boureghda is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
At 27 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.
Cheickna Samaké 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.
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.” Kheir Eddine Toual has his answer from ES Setif; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Issam Abdelhamid Naim will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around ES Setif the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The offer went to MC Alger 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.
Yanis Hamache 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. Ahmed Hossam has just signed for ES Setif, and for once the answer mattered.
ES Setif asked and Manchester City said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Words at ES Setif training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cheickna Samaké 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 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Alvin Ayman has just signed for ES Setif, and for once the answer mattered.
ES Setif asked and Racing Genk 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.
Issam Abdelhamid Naim 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.
Manchester City 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.
Alvin Ayman is 20, and ES Setif have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. ES Setif have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The phone has started ringing about Yakou Meïté again, and this time the name on the line is Dinamo Tbilisi. ES Setif are listening politely and promising nothing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ES Setif this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
ES Setif asked and Fleetwood Town said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Words at ES Setif training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Redouane Maachou 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 Zakaria Mansouri is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at ES Setif. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mohamed Bouderbala trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mamaye Coulibaly will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around ES Setif the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Yanis Hamache and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at ES Setif training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Cano 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 now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Paris Saint-Germain have kept their man, and ES Setif go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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 ES Setif, another week without a signature from Issam Abdelhamid Naim.
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.
In brief
The dugoutHazem Temsah knocks on the manager's door
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 142 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 ES Setif, and it is not being withdrawn.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. ES Setif had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at ES Setif can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Yanis Hamache 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. Manchester City have kept their man, and ES Setif go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
ES Setif have made the call to Paris Saint-Germain. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around ES Setif people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 ES Setif, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yakou Meïté, and the manager let it.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at ES Setif training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mamaye Coulibaly 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 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Cano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
ES Setif asked and Fleetwood Town said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at ES Setif, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
19 graduates, from a department now rated 9 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around ES Setif people have started saying his name in the past tense.
ES Setif had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Paris Saint-Germain, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Yanis Hamache and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Lucas Cano 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Chemseddine Lakehal and ES Setif agree another 3 years.
ES Setif asked and Notts County said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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 Yanis Hamache is on it.
“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 ES Setif, and it is not being withdrawn.
Yanis Hamache 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 Mamaye Coulibaly was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Paris Saint-Germain 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 ES Setif has been clear about where Oussama Gatal stands, which is more than many ever get.
Nobody at ES Setif 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.
15 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. ES Setif lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Yanis Hamache 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.
Lucas Cano 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.
“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 ES Setif know it.
Nobody at ES Setif 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.
In brief
The dugoutOussama Chita knocks on the manager’s door
23 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. ES Setif lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ES Setif this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at ES Setif training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Cano 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 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.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. ES Setif lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Nobody at ES Setif 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at ES Setif, another week without a signature from Mehdi Boureghda.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at ES Setif would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ES Setif this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at ES Setif training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Cano 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.
Nobody at ES Setif 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Tarek Bousseder signs something — a contract at ES Setif or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Position 4, 59 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” ES Setif have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 ES Setif know it.
Yakou Meïté 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 Lucas Cano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ES Setif 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.
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 Zaalouk is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Daniel Gnahoua trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
Yanis Hamache and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Lucas Cano 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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at ES Setif, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Mamaye Coulibaly may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
The least glamorous thing a foreign signing ever does and the one that decides most of them. A player who can hear the shout behind him is a different footballer from one who cannot.
30 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. ES Setif lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Yanis Hamache 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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at ES Setif training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Cano 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.
Nobody at ES Setif 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Tarek Bousseder signs something — a contract at ES Setif or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Position 4, 59 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 12 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Yanis Hamache 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mamaye Coulibaly was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Lucas Cano is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Position 4 on 59 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Match25 Mar 2028
Another one collected away from home
5 on the bounce on the road for ES Setif. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ES Setif this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
11 goals and a season average of 7.39 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at ES Setif training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Cano 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.
Riad Benayad 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 Lucas Cano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
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.” Houssem Ghoulam, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Nobody at ES Setif 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. ES Setif will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 ES Setif, and it is not being withdrawn.
Yakou Meïté 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.
4 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 30 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what ES Setif can pretend not to have heard.
Yanis Hamache 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 Lucas Cano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 ES Setif, and 0 appearances in 35 say he has earned the hearing.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. ES Setif will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; ES Setif are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ES Setif this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Lucas Cano 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Lucas Cano. 1‑0 against MC Oran, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.30 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason ES Setif will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mohamed Zaalouk provided it, and the 9.67 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Chemseddine Lakehal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 57 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what ES Setif can pretend not to have heard.
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Lucas Cano 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 65 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 ES Setif, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” ES Setif have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 6 signed and 6 gone
That is the business done at ES Setif 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.
ES Setif had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Caracas, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Yanis Hamache 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason ES Setif will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
ES Ben Aknoun will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. ES Setif were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Riad Benayad 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. MC Alger have kept their man, and ES Setif go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is 22 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.
A performance of 8.35 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings31 Jan 2028
Lucas Cano was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.30. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.