Two goals and a mark of 9.14 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.75, and 2 involvements.
Alexis Guendouz 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. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad18 Nov 2030
Words at JS Kabylie training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aly Abeid 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.
8.22. 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 91. ASO Chlef had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what JS Kabylie can pretend not to have heard.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.98 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 JS Kabylie they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Aly Abeid and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Abdelkrim Namani and JS Kabylie agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and JS Saoura were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zakaria Draoui was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zakaria Draoui was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 7.48 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, JS Kabylie had the best player on the pitch.
Squad4 Nov 2030
A place in the month's best eleven for Islam Belaili
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Islam Belaili has come out of that comparison in the side, and JS Kabylie have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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 Achraf Bencharki is on it.
In brief
The dugoutMohamed Sherif asks for a word with the manager
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. JS Kabylie lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at JS Kabylie this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad28 Oct 2030
Words at JS Kabylie training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zakaria Draoui 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.
Player ratings28 Oct 2030
Célestin Écua was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.08. 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.
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. 27 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at JS Kabylie this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The 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.
Nobody at JS Kabylie is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. JS Kabylie lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around JS Kabylie 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 Laïd Chahine Bellaouel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The dugout14 Oct 2030
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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Hicham Belmadi to a room that had heard them before.
Nobody at JS Kabylie 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 words a physio says slowly. 41 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.
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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Abdennour Iheb Belhocini and JS Kabylie agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Aly Abeid and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
At 17 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.
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 ratings7 Oct 2030
Oualid Malki was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.13. 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.
48 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. JS Kabylie lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Successful dribbles: 31. 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.” JS Kabylie have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Aly Abeid was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
A 1‑0 win over ES Mostaganem, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zakaria Draoui was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
56 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. JS Kabylie lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at JS Kabylie this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 25 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Laïd Chahine Bellaouel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The dugout23 Sep 2030
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Hicham Belmadi left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody at JS Kabylie 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.
64 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. JS Kabylie lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Achraf Bencharki provided it, and the 9.39 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 JS Kabylie is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Aly Abeid and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Sep 2030
Reda Benchaa has improved at 28, 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Hicham Belmadi could afford to be generous.
71 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. JS Kabylie lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what JS Kabylie can pretend not to have heard.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.12 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Achraf Bencharki and JS Kabylie agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Aly Abeid and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
At 29 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
The words a physio says slowly. 78 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. JS Kabylie have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 12 arrived, 12 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
A new deal for the man in the dugout, and the clearest thing a board can say without calling a press conference about it. Stability is cheap to promise and expensive to deliver.
Aly Abeid was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom2 Sep 2030
5 academy players handed senior numbers at JS Kabylie
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
At 34 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Sofiane Halliche is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
85 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. JS Kabylie 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 JS Kabylie will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at JS Kabylie this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. JS Kabylie will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Nobody at JS Kabylie 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.
Position 4 on 60 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at JS Kabylie, and both men came out saying it was fine.
92 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. JS Kabylie lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason JS Kabylie will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
It 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Laïd Chahine Bellaouel trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
99 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. JS Kabylie 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. 35 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Oualid Malki will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around JS Kabylie the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Aly Abeid and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
JS Kabylie asked and USM Alger 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 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at JS Kabylie. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
106 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. JS Kabylie lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. JS Kabylie will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Aly Abeid was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ayoub Abdellaoui and JS Kabylie agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Nobody at JS Kabylie 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.
113 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. JS Kabylie lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. JS Kabylie will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 JS Kabylie this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Jul 2030
Words at JS Kabylie training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zakaria Draoui 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.
60 points from position 4. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Aimen Mahious trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
121 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. JS Kabylie lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. JS Kabylie will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. JS Kabylie have lost him in all but the paperwork.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Salim Bah is living that version at JS Kabylie, and it tends to show in the first month.
Nobody at JS Kabylie 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.
128 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. JS Kabylie 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. 64 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Aly Abeid and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
JS Kabylie asked and USM Alger 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 Zakaria Draoui was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at JS Kabylie 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 JS Kabylie, another week without a signature from Zakaria Draoui.
135 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. JS Kabylie 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. 73 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. JS Kabylie have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 JS Kabylie, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with MC Alger 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.
The offer went to CR Belouizdad 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.
Aly Abeid was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The words a physio says slowly. 142 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. 80 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. JS Kabylie have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. JS Kabylie had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at JS Kabylie this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Abdennour Iheb Belhocini is on it.
149 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. JS Kabylie lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. JS Kabylie 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 JS Kabylie is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Nobody at JS Kabylie 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 94 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Alexis Guendouz 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.
JS Kabylie asked and USM Alger 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 Aly Abeid was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at JS Kabylie 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. JS Kabylie will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and USM Alger waiting with a shirt. Nobody at JS Kabylie is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
JS Kabylie and MC Oran have settled on $820.0K. 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.
Alexis Guendouz 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 makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. JS Kabylie will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
JS Kabylie offered $13.0K; CS Constantine 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.
Squad10 Jun 2030
Words at JS Kabylie training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aly Abeid 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 did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ahmed Mammeri has his answer from JS Kabylie; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. JS Kabylie will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 JS Kabylie 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Aimen Bouguerra has his answer from JS Kabylie; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mohamed Sherif trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The window is open, and with it the only month of the year when a supporter’s hopes are limited by nothing but arithmetic. The board know the arithmetic; the supporters know the hopes.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 116 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Alexis Guendouz and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 May 2030
Words at JS Kabylie training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aly Abeid 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 123 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Alexis Guendouz 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 Aly Abeid was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Achraf Bencharki is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at JS Kabylie. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason JS Kabylie 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. Oualid Malki will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around JS Kabylie the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Aly Abeid was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
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 Aly Abeid is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Laïd Chahine Bellaouel trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at JS Kabylie. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“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 JS Kabylie, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at JS Kabylie this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Aimen Lahmeri and JS Kabylie agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad6 May 2030
Aly Abeid 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.
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 Abdennour Iheb Belhocini is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Aimen Bouguerra trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
27 graduates, from a department now rated 7 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
Alexis Guendouz and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Apr 2030
Aly Abeid 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.
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 Billal Messaoudi is on it.
60 points from position 4. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
Aly Abeid and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
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 Achraf Bencharki is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at JS Kabylie, 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 Dalil Adel Hassen Khodja has written the date down.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at JS Kabylie the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Oualid Malki will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around JS Kabylie the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Alexis Guendouz 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.
Squad15 Apr 2030
Aly Abeid 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.
Nobody at JS Kabylie 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.
Alexis Guendouz has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
“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 JS Kabylie, 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.” JS Kabylie have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mohamed Réda Hamidi and JS Kabylie agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at JS Kabylie this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Apr 2030
Aly Abeid 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Islam Belaili is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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 Abdennour Iheb Belhocini is on it.
CS Constantine go through and JS Kabylie go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. JS Kabylie told Billal Messaoudi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“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.
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 Moncef Bisker was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Alexis Guendouz 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.
Squad25 Mar 2030
Aly Abeid 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 mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; JS Kabylie are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Abdennour Iheb Belhocini had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and MC Oran were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
“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 JS Kabylie, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Oualid Malki will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around JS Kabylie the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Alexis Guendouz 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 Aly Abeid was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
15 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.
“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 JS Kabylie, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at JS Kabylie this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Sherif 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” JS Kabylie have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aly Abeid was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.97 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Alexis Guendouz 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.
Squad25 Feb 2030
Aly Abeid 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: Achraf Bencharki. 1‑0 against ASO Chlef, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around JS Kabylie they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Aly Abeid was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
A touch he did not want, a bounce he could not have read, and his name in the wrong column. There is no consoling a man after one of these, and JS Kabylie will not try tonight.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Sherif was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Two goals and a mark of 8.97 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.89 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. MC Alger moved on, Lahlou Akhrib reports back to JS Kabylie, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Alexis Guendouz and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Feb 2030
Words at JS Kabylie training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aly Abeid 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.
49 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and ES Setif waiting with a shirt. Nobody at JS Kabylie is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
At 35 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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 1 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Achraf Bencharki and JS Kabylie agree another 2 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at JS Kabylie this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” JS Kabylie have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at JS Kabylie is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Aly Abeid was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The name of Oualid Malki has come up in conversations JS Kabylie were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Lahlou Akhrib had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
11 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.
Alexis Guendouz 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.
12 goals and a season average of 7.31. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad21 Jan 2030
Words at JS Kabylie training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aly Abeid is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have 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 JS Kabylie know it.
9 combined actions and 6.81. 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.
The first defeat in 14 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against ES Setif; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. JS Kabylie have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from CR Belouizdad for Oualid Malki was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.87 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Aly Abeid 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.
ES Mostaganem will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. JS Kabylie were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. JS Kabylie had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.39 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 10 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Alexis Guendouz 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.
Squad31 Dec 2029
Aly Abeid 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Billal Messaoudi at his very best
10 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.
USM Khenchela will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. JS Kabylie were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Alexis Guendouz 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.
Squad24 Dec 2029
Aly Abeid 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 18 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Achraf Bencharki provided it, and the 9.22 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.50 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at JS Kabylie is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Match15 Dec 2029
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for JS Kabylie. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.20 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at JS Kabylie this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Dec 2029
Words at JS Kabylie training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aly Abeid 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.
7 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.
At 39 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.28 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Alexis Guendouz 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 Aly Abeid was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
6 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.
Aly Abeid and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
3 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what JS Kabylie can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Seif Benrabah will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around JS Kabylie the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Alexis Guendouz and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Aly Abeid 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 mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; JS Kabylie are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Marked 8.27 — 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Mário Junior
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at JS Kabylie this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Aly Abeid 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: Célestin Écua. 3‑1 against ASO Chlef, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around JS Kabylie they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Aly Abeid was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Aly Abeid has come out of that comparison in the side, and JS Kabylie have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout5 Nov 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.” Hicham Belmadi, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Nobody at JS Kabylie 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.
Successful dribbles: 34. 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.
MB Rouissat will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. JS Kabylie were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Billal Messaoudi provided it, and the 9.27 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Alexis Guendouz 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 Aly Abeid was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Yakoub Guellati and JS Kabylie agree another 4 years.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Hicham Belmadi could afford to be generous.
Successful dribbles: 32. 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.
“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 JS Kabylie, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Seif Benrabah will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around JS Kabylie the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aly Abeid was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Billal Messaoudi. 2‑1 against MC El Bayadh, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Hicham Belmadi on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at JS Kabylie this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Nobody at JS Kabylie 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 dugout15 Oct 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Hicham Belmadi was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the JS Kabylie dressing room was either.
Squad15 Oct 2029
Words at JS Kabylie training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mostapha Rezkallah Bott 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.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Aimen Mahious obliged against MB Rouissat. 2‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is JS Kabylie.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 100th minute. MB Rouissat will replay every second of the added time for a week.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.84 at 35, 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 JS Kabylie is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Alexis Guendouz was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.35 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around JS Kabylie they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mohamed Bendary is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Alexis Guendouz and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad1 Oct 2029
Aly Abeid 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Hicham Belmadi could afford to be generous.
ES Mostaganem will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. JS Kabylie were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Billal Messaoudi provided it, and the 9.11 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Seif Benrabah will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around JS Kabylie the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Nobody at JS Kabylie 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 dugoutThe manager makes an example of Fouad Rahmani
SquadHossam Loutfy falls out with a teammate over standards
“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 JS Kabylie, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at JS Kabylie this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Words at JS Kabylie training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aly Abeid 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.
“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; JS Kabylie are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.93 at 34, 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 JS Kabylie is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Alexis Guendouz 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.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Words at JS Kabylie training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aly Abeid 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Amayes Sabri and JS Kabylie agree another 4 years.
The dugout10 Sep 2029
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Hicham Belmadi left the room before anybody could ask which.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Achraf Bencharki provided it, and the 9.80 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 9 arrived, 10 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around JS Kabylie they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
JS Kabylie moved before anybody else could: a new deal for Hicham Belmadi, agreed quietly and announced loudly. Boards extend managers for many reasons; the good one is the one this looks like.
Aly Abeid and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and JS Saoura waiting with a shirt. Nobody at JS Kabylie is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around JS Kabylie they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Alexis Guendouz and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Aug 2029
Aly Abeid 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.
Nobody at JS Kabylie 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. JS Kabylie know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
60 points from position 4. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Aimen Bouguerra trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. JS Kabylie will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. JS Kabylie have lost him in all but the paperwork.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at JS Kabylie this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Aly Abeid 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.
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 Billal Messaoudi is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at JS Kabylie, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason JS Kabylie will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. JS Kabylie have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Aly Abeid was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Fouad Rahmani has improved at 27, 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.
Nobody at JS Kabylie 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. JS Kabylie 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 JS Kabylie, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at JS Kabylie is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Alexis Guendouz 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.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Aly Abeid 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.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Abdennour Iheb Belhocini is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mário Junior trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. JS Kabylie will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and MC El Bayadh waiting with a shirt. Nobody at JS Kabylie is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Alexis Guendouz and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Aly Abeid 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.
Nobody at JS Kabylie 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 48 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 JS Kabylie 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 JS Kabylie 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.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Words at JS Kabylie training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Seif Benrabah 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at JS Kabylie, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 56 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Alexis Guendouz 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.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Aly Abeid 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.
Nobody at JS Kabylie 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at JS Kabylie. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at JS Kabylie is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Hossam Loutfy 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.
Alexis Guendouz 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 easiest signature of my career.” Ryad Boudebouz and JS Kabylie agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Words at JS Kabylie training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aly Abeid 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Abdelkrim Namani trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
MC Alger go through and JS Kabylie go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Hicham Belmadi after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
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 Aly Abeid is on it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Oualid Malki will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around JS Kabylie 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 JS Kabylie this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aly Abeid was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Alexis Guendouz 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.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Aly Abeid 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.
Nobody at JS Kabylie 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and CS Constantine waiting with a shirt. Nobody at JS Kabylie is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Aly Abeid and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. JS Kabylie will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
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 Abdennour Iheb Belhocini is on it.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Seif Benrabah 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mário Junior trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. JS Kabylie would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. JS Kabylie know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Add another name to the list: CS Constantine have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Oualid Malki. The answer from JS Kabylie has not changed — yet.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Words at JS Kabylie training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aly Abeid 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. JS Kabylie know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Position 4, 60 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Oualid Malki will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around JS Kabylie the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Alexis Guendouz 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.
Squad28 May 2029
Words at JS Kabylie training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aly Abeid 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 JS Kabylie 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at JS Kabylie this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Achraf Bencharki is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aly Abeid 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Aimen Bouguerra trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Alexis Guendouz 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 Aly Abeid was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Aly Abeid is on it.
Position 4, 60 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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and JS Kabylie have no good answer.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around JS Kabylie they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Aly Abeid was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
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 Billal Messaoudi is on it.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Words at JS Kabylie training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Seif Benrabah 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.
In brief
The dugoutNadir Yakoubi knocks on the manager's door
SquadThe training reports on Reda Benchaa are not good
“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 JS Kabylie, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at JS Kabylie this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aly Abeid was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 JS Kabylie know it.
Nobody at JS Kabylie will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aly Abeid was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Seif Benrabah has his answer from JS Kabylie; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ahmed Mammeri trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at JS Kabylie that is a harder question to answer.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
Aly Abeid and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Laïd Chahine Bellaouel and JS Kabylie agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Nobody at JS Kabylie will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Seif Benrabah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
60 points from position 4. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
103 minutes played. Achraf Bencharki found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and CS Constantine went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” JS Kabylie have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.21 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 JS Kabylie they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Alexis Guendouz 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.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Aly Abeid 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.” Laïd Chahine Bellaouel and JS Kabylie agree another 4 years.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Olympique Akbou kept coming because nothing stopped them, and JS Kabylie will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Position 4 on 60 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.57 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at JS Kabylie this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Aly Abeid 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.
Marked 8.60 — 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.
Marked 8.43 — 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.
7.69, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Hicham Belmadi could afford to be generous.
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 Abdennour Iheb Belhocini is on it.
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.
Position 3, 56 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.
Alexis Guendouz 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 Mar 2029
Aly Abeid 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at JS Kabylie is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Alexis Guendouz 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 Aly Abeid was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 5 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
16 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Achraf Bencharki provided it, and the 9.47 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what JS Kabylie can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at JS Kabylie 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: Achraf Bencharki. 3‑1 against ASO Chlef, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
10.00. 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.
In brief
SquadWords at JS Kabylie training over how hard people work
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.77 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.
Alexis Guendouz and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
In brief
SquadWords at JS Kabylie training over how hard people work
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.84 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” JS Kabylie have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Oualid Malki will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around JS Kabylie the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 7 gone
That is the business done at JS Kabylie 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.
Aly Abeid was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
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.
CS Constantine will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. JS Kabylie were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
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 settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around JS Kabylie people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and MC El Bayadh waiting with a shirt. Nobody at JS Kabylie is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. JS Kabylie have done the hard part with JS Saoura, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 7 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
7 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around JS Kabylie people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Mamelodi Sundowns keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Aly Abeid and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Achraf Bencharki. 3‑1 against ES Setif, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Match13 Jan 2029
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for JS Kabylie. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
122 minutes played. Soufiane Bayazid found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and JS Saoura went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around JS Kabylie people have started saying his name in the past tense.
6 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.
“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 JS Kabylie, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Billal Messaoudi provided it, and the 9.10 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 JS Kabylie, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at JS Kabylie this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Aimen Mahious 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.
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout1 Jan 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.” Hicham Belmadi, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.38 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
USM Khenchela made JS Kabylie work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The dugout25 Dec 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.” Hicham Belmadi, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.