From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.42 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
No sign of nerves from Yacine Goudjil at 21 — 7.70
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Yacine Goudjil did not need any: 7.70, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match20 Feb 2027
ES Setif make home a hard place to visit
12 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.
Market22 Feb 2027
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.
Transfer targets22 Feb 2027
No thanks: Keanu Cupido rejects the move
ES Setif had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Mamelodi Sundowns, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad22 Feb 2027
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.
Match20 Feb 2027
ES Ben Aknoun made ES Setif work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at ES Setif training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Merouane Zerrouki 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 dugout22 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Tarek Bousseder
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match13 Feb 2027
No end in sight to ES Setif's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at ES Setif has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad15 Feb 2027
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.
Match13 Feb 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Boardroom15 Feb 2027
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Salah Mohsen is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.21 with 7 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Too much change too quickly at ES Setif
8 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.
Loan watch15 Feb 2027
“I did not go to ES Mostaganem to sit and watch. I want to come back to ES Setif and fight for my place.” 6 appearances in 23 matches say the rest.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.33, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Marked 8.04 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Market8 Feb 2027
ES Setif say no — this time
The offer from ES Mostaganem 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.
Match6 Feb 2027
The run at home goes on for ES Setif
11 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Market8 Feb 2027
The deal that would have taken Zakaria Saidi to CR Belouizdad 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
He is 21, he is averaging 7.08, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A falling-out at ES Setif
Yanis Hamache and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match6 Feb 2027
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about ES Setif and JS Kabylie in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A move Diógenes Inácio would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Diógenes Inácio is living that version at ES Setif, and it tends to show in the first month.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market1 Feb 2027
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.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
Mick Kila Omfia: that is not what I was promised
“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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
ES Setif close the window on a squad of their own making
6 in and 2 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Squad1 Feb 2027
A move Thibaud Garondo would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Thibaud Garondo is living that version at ES Setif, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market1 Feb 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. ES Setif have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad1 Feb 2027
A falling-out at ES Setif
Daniel Gnahoua and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match30 Jan 2027
CR Belouizdad left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Chemseddine Lakehal, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market25 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Ismaily waiting with a shirt. Nobody at ES Setif is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market25 Jan 2027
“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.
Market25 Jan 2027
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.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
The deal with ASO Chlef is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
No thanks: Keanu Cupido rejects the move
ES Setif had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Mamelodi Sundowns, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad25 Jan 2027
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.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. JS Saoura have kept their man, and ES Setif go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match23 Jan 2027
USM Alger left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at ES Setif training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lahlou Akhrib 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match16 Jan 2027
4‑0, and Riad Benayad took the headlines on an afternoon when everything ES Setif tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Market18 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and ES Mostaganem waiting with a shirt. Nobody at ES Setif is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.01, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
No sign of nerves from Yacine Goudjil at 21 — 8.47
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Yacine Goudjil did not need any: 8.47, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.99, and nobody on the pitch better.
Market18 Jan 2027
The deal that would have taken Mohamed Hamek to MC Oran 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.
Market18 Jan 2027
The chase for Oualid Malki ended with $710.0K changing hands and JS Kabylie out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
No thanks: Chico Lamba rejects the move
ES Setif had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at AS Saint-Etienne, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Match16 Jan 2027
Still nobody has beaten ES Setif
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market11 Jan 2027
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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Tarek Bousseder commits to ES Setif for another 3 years.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A falling-out at ES Setif
Yanis Hamache and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A season average of 7.00 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. ES Setif know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Match9 Jan 2027
Whatever happens, ES Setif do not lose
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.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al Ahly have kept their man, and ES Setif go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Merouane Zerrouki, and the manager let it.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 10 actions, 6.35, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Salah Mohsen is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.26 with 7 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match2 Jan 2027
MB Rouissat 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.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
A brace, and Riad Benayad takes the afternoon — 8.56
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Riad Benayad provided it, and the 8.56 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market4 Jan 2027
“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.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Yacine Goudjil, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.13
A mark of 8.13 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad4 Jan 2027
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.
Match2 Jan 2027
ES Setif cannot stop winning
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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at ES Setif
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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 34 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for ES Setif is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Dec 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Yacine Goudjil, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.98
A mark of 7.98 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad28 Dec 2026
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 terraces28 Dec 2026
At 21 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.
Match26 Dec 2026
A 1‑0 win over MC El Bayadh, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Ninety minutes of Riad Benayad at his very best
Marked 8.14. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at ES Setif.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 7.06, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Kamel Hamidi's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Abdelhak Bounedjah kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Mohamed Boukerma ran the middle of the pitch — 6.70
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 6.70, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Chemseddine Lakehal, and the manager let it.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Defences have started doubling up on Salah Mohsen
6 goals and a season average of 7.21 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Match19 Dec 2026
It needed Riad Benayad to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against CS Constantine, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Abdoulaye Niakaté 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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Chances created: 10. The column nobody reads carried the whole story of the match, and his name was at the top of it.
Looking ahead21 Dec 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Aïssa Boudechicha’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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match12 Dec 2026
4‑1, and Mohamed Boukerma took the headlines on an afternoon when everything ES Setif tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.10 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
A performance of 8.38 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 4‑1, already talking about the next one.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
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.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Yacine Goudjil has become a man the manager trusts
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.
Market14 Dec 2026
The Riad Benayad talk will not go away
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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Salah Mohsen speaks, and the room listens
“I am not asking anybody to be better than they are. I am asking everybody to be as good as they are, every week.” Said out loud, in front of everybody, and the room at ES Setif was different afterwards.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match5 Dec 2026
0‑2 to MC Oran, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Kamel Hamidi
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Abdelhak Bounedjah to a room that had heard them before.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Riad Benayad named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Riad Benayad is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Abdoulaye Niakaté 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.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Daniel Gnahoua
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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Riad Benayad named player of the week
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Riad Benayad has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Looking ahead7 Dec 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against MC Alger in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Market7 Dec 2026
The Salah Mohsen story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Salah Mohsen signs something — a contract at ES Setif or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match28 Nov 2026
3‑0, and Salah Mohsen took the headlines on an afternoon when everything ES Setif tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.56 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad30 Nov 2026
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 terraces30 Nov 2026
At 21 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.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Marked 8.75 — 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
200 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.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Mohamed Boukerma ran the middle of the pitch — 6.91
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 6.91, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Aïssa Boudechicha, and the manager let it.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Abdelhak Bounedjah kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match21 Nov 2026
Nowhere to hide for ES Setif
1‑4 against Paradou, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Match21 Nov 2026
The run is over for ES Setif
8 matches without defeat, and then Paradou. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Squad23 Nov 2026
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.
Boardroom23 Nov 2026
Nobody left the ES Setif dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Abdelhak Bounedjah after 1‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mohamed Hamek, and the manager let it.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Whether it was the goalkeeper or the ten in front of him is the argument that will fill every conversation in town this week. 5 saves does not settle it either way.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Nov 2026
A falling-out at ES Setif
Yanis Hamache and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at ES Setif training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdoulaye Niakaté 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 dugout16 Nov 2026
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.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Paradou next, and one man in the ES Setif dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market16 Nov 2026
The Riad Benayad talk will not go away
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.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
They sit in position 7 and they will be waiting. Away form is where a season shows its true character, and this side has a point to make about its own.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match7 Nov 2026
ES Setif cannot stop winning
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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A falling-out at ES Setif
Daniel Gnahoua and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match7 Nov 2026
A 1‑0 win over USM Khenchela, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.38 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Abdelhak Bounedjah could afford to be generous.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Issam Abdelhamid Naim, and the manager let it.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at ES Setif training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdoulaye Niakaté 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 dugout9 Nov 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Mudasiru Salifu
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Marked 8.16 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Match31 Oct 2026
Whatever happens, ES Setif do not lose
7 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
ES Ben Aknoun made ES Setif work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Loan watch2 Nov 2026
“I watch every ES Setif game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at ES Mostaganem runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Daniel Gnahoua named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Daniel Gnahoua is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Abdelhak Bounedjah could afford to be generous.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
13 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Market2 Nov 2026
The name of Salah Mohsen keeps appearing in other people's back pages. ES Setif say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Age has not caught Kamel Chergui yet — 8.20
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.20 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match24 Oct 2026
Whatever happens, ES Setif do not lose
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.
Match24 Oct 2026
Olympique Akbou made ES Setif work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Aïssa Boudechicha, and the manager let it.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Abdelhak Bounedjah kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Abdoulaye Niakaté 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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. ES Setif have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Looking ahead26 Oct 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Tarek Bousseder’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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match14 Oct 2026
Cup progress for ES Setif
A 2‑0 win over ES Ben Aknoun, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Marked 8.51 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Mehdi Boureghda is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
The terraces19 Oct 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Kheir Eddine Toual 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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yacine Goudjil, and the manager let it.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A row about effort at ES Setif
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdoulaye Niakaté was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Yacine Goudjil is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at ES Setif
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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Tarek Bousseder and ES Setif agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Oct 2026
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The medical room confirms 30 days on the sidelines for Mohamed Hamek, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Match3 Oct 2026
ES Setif rescue it on 92 minutes
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 92. CR Belouizdad had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Tarek Bousseder
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Too much change too quickly at ES Setif
11 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
A 2‑2 draw with CR Belouizdad leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Salah Mohsen makes the team of the month
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Abdelhak Bounedjah chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
No sign of nerves from Yacine Goudjil at 21 — 7.67
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Yacine Goudjil did not need any: 7.67, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad28 Sep 2026
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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Kamel Chergui did the work nobody counts — 6.84
13 combined actions and 6.84. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Match26 Sep 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Riad Benayad’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to ES Setif.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.38, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑0, already talking about the next one.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A row about effort at ES Setif
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdoulaye Niakaté was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Looking ahead28 Sep 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Merouane Zerrouki’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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at ES Setif
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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Riad Benayad. 2‑1 against ASO Chlef, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Yacine Goudjil 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Salah Mohsen at his very best
Marked 8.37. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at ES Setif.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Abdelhak Bounedjah could afford to be generous.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, ES Setif have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
Looking ahead21 Sep 2026
USM Alger next, and one man in the ES Setif dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market21 Sep 2026
The Riad Benayad talk will not go away
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 2026
A move Abdoulaye Niakaté would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Abdoulaye Niakaté is living that version at ES Setif, and it tends to show in the first month.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Paradou wanted more than $18.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Match12 Sep 2026
0‑2 to JS Saoura, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Abdoulaye Niakaté and ES Setif agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at ES Setif training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kheir Eddine Toual 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 dugout14 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Mudasiru Salifu
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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
Looking ahead14 Sep 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Dalil Adel Hassen Khodja’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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
ES Setif offered $4.1M; Al-Ettifaq 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
Salah Mohsen arrives at ES Setif in a $2.4M statement of intent
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. ES Setif have paid $2.4M for Salah Mohsen, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Market7 Sep 2026
“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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 19 in, 3 out at ES Setif
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 19 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
ES Setif spend $2.4M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $2.4M for Salah Mohsen, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Levski have kept their man, and ES Setif go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
60 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. ES Setif will try again when the window opens; El Masry may not be selling by then.
Squad7 Sep 2026
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and ES Setif know which stage they are at.
In brief
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Squad
10 new faces, and ES Setif are still learning each other
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Squad
Mohamed Hamek is no longer first choice
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Boardroom
ES Setif say no to the training-ground money
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Aug 2026
“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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
$63.0K was the most the club would pay and JS Kabylie 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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
A loan move for Paul Argney is in the works
ES Setif have made the call to Le Havre AC. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Market31 Aug 2026
ES Mostaganem are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. ES Setif will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Market31 Aug 2026
ES Setif have made Mohamed Boukerma available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
“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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
ES Setif have gone to Al-Ettifaq 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
$2.4M on the table at El Masry. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $22.8K — a club that wants Mohammed Kerroum enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Stade Rennais is saying, and nobody at ES Setif is enjoying the guessing.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A falling-out at ES Setif
Yanis Hamache and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $113.8K — a club that wants Oualaa Moundhir Bouzekri enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. ES Setif have done the hard part with Stade Rennais, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at ES Setif
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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The offer went to JS Kabylie this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
ES Setif offered $110.0K; MC 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Paradou have kept their man, and ES Setif go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Rodez AF keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad10 Aug 2026
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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ahmed Soudani has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Abderrahmane Medjani has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Karim Bennacer has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Youcef Ounas has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at ES Setif
9 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Stade Rennais 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Riad Benayad and ES Setif agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A row about effort at ES Setif
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kamel Chergui was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad3 Aug 2026
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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Yanis Hamache has outgrown this division
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. ES Setif know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Monaco 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Rodez AF 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
MC Oran 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“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 Mudasiru Salifu.