It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MB Rouissat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Day 12 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Squad13 Sep 2032
Words at MB Rouissat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Naoufel Merdja 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 end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Interim Coach clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Not an interim appointment — an institution with an empty coaching office. Somebody unfamiliar will run the sessions this week, and the question of how a club gets into this state is one the board will be asked and will not answer.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 17 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Interim Coach recited it perfectly.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 15 arrived, 11 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 24 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The deal with ES Setif 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hamza Salem was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Zolani Nkombelo 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 dugout30 Aug 2032
Hamza Salem is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 31 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. ES Mostaganem have kept their man, and MB Rouissat go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad23 Aug 2032
Words at MB Rouissat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Naoufel Merdja 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 MB Rouissat, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ghilas Belgacem signs something — a contract at MB Rouissat or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. MB Rouissat will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have shaken hands with ES Setif; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MB Rouissat 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 Hamza Salem was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. MB Rouissat will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at ASO Chlef is saying, and nobody at MB Rouissat is enjoying the guessing.
At 18 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Badreddine Touki and MB Rouissat agree another 2 years.
Squad9 Aug 2032
Words at MB Rouissat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hamza Salem 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.
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The words a physio says slowly. 17 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 board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason MB Rouissat will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
Gaya Ait Hamou 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.” Badreddine Touki and MB Rouissat agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
MB Rouissat asked and Olympique Akbou said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout2 Aug 2032
Hamza Salem is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at MB Rouissat, and both men came out saying it was fine.
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. MB Rouissat 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. 59 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at MB Rouissat, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hamza Salem was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
MB Rouissat asked and ES Mostaganem said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mohamed Tlili trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ghilas Belgacem signs something — a contract at MB Rouissat or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
The words a physio says slowly. 31 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. MB Rouissat will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The deal with ES Setif 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MB Rouissat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Jul 2032
Hamza Salem 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 Djalal Eddine Rahal is on it.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at MB Rouissat is running low.
Position 14 and 20 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
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.
Hamza Salem 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.” Stanley Oganbor and MB Rouissat agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. MB Rouissat will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
In brief
The dugoutYacine Zeghad has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutSaikou Chorr asks for a word with the manager
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason MB Rouissat will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Siaka Bagayoko and MB Rouissat agree another 2 years.
Rezki Hamroune and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. ES Ben Aknoun have kept their man, and MB Rouissat go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Abderrahmane Feghouli has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means MB Rouissat have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hamza Salem was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The phone has started ringing about Julio Bandessi again, and this time the name on the line is MC Oran. MB Rouissat are listening politely and promising nothing.
In brief
The dugoutHamza Salem is still being punished for one mistake
“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 MB Rouissat, and it is not being withdrawn.
Rezki Hamroune and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Jun 2032
Hamza Salem falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ghilas Belgacem signs something — a contract at MB Rouissat or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at MB Rouissat, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The mood at MB Rouissat has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. MB Rouissat will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gaya Ait Hamou 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 Djalal Eddine Rahal is on it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. MB Rouissat will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at MB Rouissat is running low.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” MB Rouissat have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around MB Rouissat they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Naoufel Merdja 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 Hamza Salem was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason MB Rouissat will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
Rezki Hamroune 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.
Squad7 Jun 2032
Hamza Salem falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout7 Jun 2032
The manager has not finished forgetting Hamza Salem's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at MB Rouissat has been clear about where Abdellah Debbari stands, which is more than many ever get.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Omar El Wahsh is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gaya Ait Hamou was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ghilas Belgacem signs something — a contract at MB Rouissat or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” MB Rouissat have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MB Rouissat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 May 2032
Words at MB Rouissat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hamza Salem 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Benali Benamar will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around MB Rouissat the goodbyes have quietly begun.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at MB Rouissat can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Naoufel Merdja 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mohamed Ridha Djahdou and MB Rouissat agree another 1 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hamza Salem was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Rezki Hamroune and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad10 May 2032
Words at MB Rouissat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gaya Ait Hamou 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.” Nadji Ben Kheira and MB Rouissat agree another 1 years.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The table is being checked before the results are in, which is always the tell. Nobody at MB Rouissat says the word and every senior player in the building is thinking it.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hamza Salem was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ghilas Belgacem signs something — a contract at MB Rouissat or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Abdellah Debbari's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
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.
Siaka Bagayoko has been around long enough to know what the spring feels like when it goes wrong, and he can feel it. A dressing room that is frightened plays like one.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MB Rouissat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Apr 2032
Hamza Salem 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 MB Rouissat 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.
Rezki Hamroune 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 Gaya Ait Hamou 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.” Naoufel Merdja and MB Rouissat agree another 3 years.
Ghilas Belgacem 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 Hamza Salem was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout12 Apr 2032
Hamza Salem is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hamza Salem was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Hamza Salem trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Naoufel Merdja has moved up it.
The mood at MB Rouissat has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 20 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MB Rouissat 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Hamza Salem will call it something else in private.
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 Djalal Eddine Rahal is on it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Interim Coach after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Saikou Chorr trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad29 Mar 2032
The division's best last weekend was a MB Rouissat man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Saikou Chorr was the best thing in any of them.
Position 14 and 19 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. ES Mostaganem kept coming because nothing stopped them, and MB Rouissat will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Rezki Hamroune 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.
Player ratings22 Mar 2032
Saikou Chorr was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.73. 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.
Squad22 Mar 2032
Hamza Salem falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at MB Rouissat can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hamza Salem was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at MB Rouissat pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑5, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout15 Mar 2032
Hamza Salem is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
In brief
Player ratingsDjigo Saikou beats them one at a time
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
92 minutes played. Abderraouf Othmani found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and USM Khenchela went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
A season average of 6.53 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. MB Rouissat know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Abderraouf Othmani provided it, and the 8.71 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Abdelkader Belaili has just signed for MB Rouissat, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gaya Ait Hamou was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
At 3 goals adrift this was a formality, and the formality lasted right up until it did not. MB Rouissat found something the first half had given no notice of, and ES Ben Aknoun could not hold what they had.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Abderraouf Othmani provided it, and the 8.74 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.89 for the rest of it.
Marked 7.89. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
Rezki Hamroune 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 4‑3 win over ES Ben Aknoun, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad1 Mar 2032
Words at MB Rouissat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hamza Salem is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.76 for the rest of 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 MB Rouissat 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 Hamza Salem was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad16 Feb 2032
Words at MB Rouissat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gaya Ait Hamou 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 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.
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 Djalal Eddine Rahal is on it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Houssem Bayoud will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around MB Rouissat the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Rezki Hamroune and MB Rouissat agree another 2 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hamza Salem was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Naoufel Merdja and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at MB Rouissat pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Yacine Zeghad is on it.
The dugout9 Feb 2032
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Interim Coach was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the MB Rouissat dressing room was either.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 2 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Rezki Hamroune 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 Hamza Salem was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Position 15 and 11 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” MB Rouissat have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. MB Rouissat have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what MB Rouissat can pretend not to have heard.
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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation MB Rouissat are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.94 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The shirt still fits. Mohamed Ridha Djahdou is back at MB Rouissat, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad19 Jan 2032
Words at MB Rouissat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hamza Salem is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. JS Kabylie have kept their man, and MB Rouissat go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The name of Tony Ngani Kameni has come up in conversations MB Rouissat were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at MB Rouissat is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Rezki Hamroune 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 Jan 2032
Hamza Salem 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CS Constantine have kept their man, and MB Rouissat go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A point taken on 96 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
The mood at MB Rouissat has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Successful dribbles: 29. 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.
Gaya Ait Hamou 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.” Badreddine Touki and MB Rouissat agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The phone has started ringing about Lucien Ntolo again, and this time the name on the line is USM Khenchela. MB Rouissat are listening politely and promising nothing.
24 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and CS Constantine were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Position 16 and 6 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
There were 89 minutes on the clock and CS Constantine had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and MB Rouissat did not stop to explain themselves.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.86, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MB Rouissat 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 Hamza Salem was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Badreddine Touki scored, was marked 7.78, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between MB Rouissat and MC Alger, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad22 Dec 2031
Words at MB Rouissat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hamza Salem 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Rezki Hamroune 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 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
The dugout15 Dec 2031
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 0‑2 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody at MB Rouissat 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
SquadWords at MB Rouissat training over how hard people work
22 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.
The terraces8 Dec 2031
The mood at MB Rouissat has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Siaka Bagayoko and MB Rouissat agree another 2 years.
Rezki Hamroune 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.
Squad8 Dec 2031
Hamza Salem 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.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout8 Dec 2031
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
21 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Some 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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at MB Rouissat is running low.
“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 MB Rouissat know it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MB Rouissat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at MB Rouissat can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad1 Dec 2031
Hamza Salem falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tony Ngani Kameni was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
9 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” MB Rouissat have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Ghilas Belgacem 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 Hamza Salem was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Abdellah Debbari and MB Rouissat agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Nobody at MB Rouissat 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 dugout17 Nov 2031
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Interim Coach chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
18 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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Rezki Hamroune 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 Nov 2031
Words at MB Rouissat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hamza Salem 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.
17 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.
Position 16 and 1 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MB Rouissat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Sofiane Guedioura is living that version at MB Rouissat, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Saikou Chorr was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mohamed Tlili, and the manager let it.
The dugout3 Nov 2031
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
16 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.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at MB Rouissat can tell you which week it ends in.
Rezki Hamroune and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Oct 2031
Words at MB Rouissat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hamza Salem 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.
15 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.
Rezki Hamroune 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Naoufel Merdja and MB Rouissat agree another 3 years.
Squad20 Oct 2031
Words at MB Rouissat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hamza Salem is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Saikou Chorr was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Saikou Chorr, and the manager let it.
The dugout13 Oct 2031
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
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 Djalal Eddine Rahal is on it.
Nobody at MB Rouissat 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MB Rouissat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Oct 2031
Words at MB Rouissat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hamza Salem is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Interim Coach after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
0‑3 to MC Oran, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad29 Sep 2031
Hamza Salem 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.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” MB Rouissat have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Rezki Hamroune and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and MB Rouissat know it.
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
The dugout22 Sep 2031
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
Squad22 Sep 2031
Saikou Chorr 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 bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
9 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.
Rezki Hamroune 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.
MB Rouissat asked and CS Constantine said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad15 Sep 2031
Hamza Salem 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MB Rouissat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 17 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Islam Medjani has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Mourad Mrezigue has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. MB Rouissat will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom1 Sep 2031
MB Rouissat close the window on a squad of their own making
0 in and 8 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nadji Ben Kheira and MB Rouissat agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
MC Alger next, and one man in the MB Rouissat dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at MB Rouissat would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at MB Rouissat, and both men came out saying it was fine.
MB Rouissat spent the window trying to move Houssem Bayoud on and nobody came. He trains with a squad that has already told him he is not part of it, and both sides now wait for the next one.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. MB Rouissat will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The bid was some way short and MB Rouissat did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad25 Aug 2031
Words at MB Rouissat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hamza Salem 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 has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Boardroom18 Aug 2031
The silence upstairs is getting loud at MB Rouissat
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Rezki Hamroune 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Tony Ngani Kameni is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
MB Rouissat asked and CS Constantine said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad18 Aug 2031
Naoufel Merdja has improved at 26, 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 phone has started ringing about Lucien Ntolo again, and this time the name on the line is USM Khenchela. MB Rouissat are listening politely and promising nothing.
In brief
The dugoutMohamed Tlili asks for a word with the manager
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 39 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MB Rouissat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Nobody at MB Rouissat 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at MB Rouissat can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason MB Rouissat will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
Rezki Hamroune and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad4 Aug 2031
Words at MB Rouissat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hamza Salem 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 would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout4 Aug 2031
Saikou Chorr loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Saikou Chorr's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
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 Stanley Oganbor has written the date down.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason MB Rouissat will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
$350.0K on the table at CS Constantine. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Rezki Hamroune and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad28 Jul 2031
Words at MB Rouissat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hamza Salem is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Yacine Zeghad is on it.
The mood at MB Rouissat has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason MB Rouissat 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, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to CS Constantine; MB Rouissat go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
Rezki Hamroune 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 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 Mohamed Tlili has written the date down.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. MB Rouissat will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
$350.0K on the table at CS Constantine. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MB Rouissat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Jul 2031
Words at MB Rouissat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hamza Salem 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 easiest signature of my career.” Mohamed Abdelmoumene Kadri and MB Rouissat agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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 board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason MB Rouissat will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
MC El Bayadh have accepted the money. What MB Rouissat do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Rezki Hamroune and MB Rouissat agree another 2 years.
Squad7 Jul 2031
Hamza Salem 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 bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. MB Rouissat will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Rezki Hamroune 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.
MB Rouissat offered $48.0K; MC El Bayadh 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at MB Rouissat, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. MB Rouissat know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The mood at MB Rouissat has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. MB Rouissat will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
$48.0K on the table at MC El Bayadh. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Gaya Ait Hamou 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 approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad23 Jun 2031
Hamza Salem falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ghilas Belgacem signs something — a contract at MB Rouissat or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Abdul Hamidu Fatawu plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
15 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. MB Rouissat lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Al Gaish waiting with a shirt. Nobody at MB Rouissat is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
USM Alger have accepted the money. What MB Rouissat do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MB Rouissat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The offer went to MC El Bayadh 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Stanley Oganbor trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. MB Rouissat lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” MB Rouissat have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Rezki Hamroune was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. MB Rouissat lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at MB Rouissat is running low.
Rezki Hamroune 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.
Squad26 May 2031
Words at MB Rouissat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hamza Salem 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 words a physio says slowly. 36 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.
Nobody at MB Rouissat will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ghilas Belgacem signs something — a contract at MB Rouissat or anywhere else — this column belongs to 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 MB Rouissat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at MB Rouissat, and both men came out saying it was fine.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at MB Rouissat can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” MB Rouissat have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Gaya Ait Hamou 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 Hamza Salem was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Saikou Chorr is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Nobody at MB Rouissat 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at MB Rouissat, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The mood at MB Rouissat has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at MB Rouissat is running low.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason MB Rouissat will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason MB Rouissat will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Nobody at MB Rouissat 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. 15 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. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MB Rouissat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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 board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
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.
Rezki Hamroune 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 Yacine Zeghad is on it.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Djalal Eddine Rahal's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. MB Rouissat know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
The words a physio says slowly. 29 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.
Boardroom31 Mar 2031
The silence upstairs is getting loud at MB Rouissat
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 23 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 42 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Rezki Hamroune will call it something else in private.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then ES Setif scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. MB Rouissat lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. ES Mostaganem kept coming because nothing stopped them, and MB Rouissat will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 49 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
6 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.
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad24 Mar 2031
Hamza Salem 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.
43 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. MB Rouissat 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 MB Rouissat will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MB Rouissat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hamza Salem was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout17 Mar 2031
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rezki Hamroune trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
50 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. MB Rouissat lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason MB Rouissat will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Rezki Hamroune 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 Yacine Zeghad is on it.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Rezki Hamroune
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Boardroom3 Mar 2031
The silence upstairs is getting loud at MB Rouissat
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. MB Rouissat will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Rezki Hamroune 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.
Squad3 Mar 2031
Hamza Salem 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 bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. MB Rouissat will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
Rezki Hamroune and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Feb 2031
Hamza Salem 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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Rezki Hamroune.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Nobody at MB Rouissat 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.
2‑7 against JS Kabylie, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 84 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MB Rouissat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
9 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about MB Rouissat and JS Kabylie in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 7.30, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 91 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match8 Feb 2031
Naoufel Merdja wins it after the whistle should have gone
94 minutes played. Naoufel Merdja found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and CR Belouizdad went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hamza Salem was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
MB Rouissat ran out of time with USM Alger. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at MB Rouissat pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Interim Coach could afford to be generous.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at MB Rouissat can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Boardroom3 Feb 2031
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 6 gone
That is the business done at MB Rouissat 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.
Rezki Hamroune and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. MC Alger have kept their man, and MB Rouissat go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at MB Rouissat can tell you which week it ends in.
“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 MB Rouissat, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nobody at MB Rouissat will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Interim Coach after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. ASO Chlef defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
MB Rouissat and USM Alger have settled on $50.0K. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MB Rouissat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Jan 2031
Hamza Salem 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. JS Saoura have kept their man, and MB Rouissat go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. MB Rouissat told Saikou Chorr something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 16 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. MB Rouissat have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Rezki Hamroune 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 Hamza Salem was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A performance of 8.00 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout13 Jan 2031
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
The mood at MB Rouissat has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. MB Rouissat will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Rezki Hamroune 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Medeama will make the call about Saikou Chorr this week. MB Rouissat have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
The dugout6 Jan 2031
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason MB Rouissat will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Rezki Hamroune and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Dec 2030
Words at MB Rouissat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hamza Salem 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.
Level with 92 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon MB Rouissat had all but put away. CS Constantine will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Nobody at MB Rouissat 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 37 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” MB Rouissat may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad23 Dec 2030
Words at MB Rouissat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hamza Salem is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Beaten 4 times, 4 saves, and an afternoon that will go on his record whether it was his fault or the defence’s. It is the quiet unfairness of the position.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Rachid Bennacer
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. MB Rouissat will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Rezki Hamroune 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.
Half the programme played, position 11, 15 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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 team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against MC Alger.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. MB Rouissat will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Rezki Hamroune and MB Rouissat agree another 2 years.
Ghilas Belgacem 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 Hamza Salem was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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. MB Rouissat told Ghilas Belgacem something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 58 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Rezki Hamroune and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Dec 2030
Hamza Salem falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ghilas Belgacem, and the manager let it.
The dugout2 Dec 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
There was no pressure on him and nowhere he had to be. MB Rouissat lost a goal to a decision that took half a second and will be discussed all week.
The dugout2 Dec 2030
The manager has not finished forgetting Naoufel Merdja's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. MB Rouissat will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Successful dribbles: 33. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings25 Nov 2030
Up for the corner, and Necer Benzid delivers — 7.83
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Necer Benzid scored, was marked 7.83, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MB Rouissat 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: Necer Benzid. 2‑0 against USM Khenchela, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason MB Rouissat will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
15 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and ES Ben Aknoun were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Player ratings18 Nov 2030
Up for the corner, and Necer Benzid delivers — 7.78
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Necer Benzid scored, was marked 7.78, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Rezki Hamroune 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 Nov 2030
Words at MB Rouissat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hamza Salem 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.
At 23 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Necer Benzid. 2‑0 against ES Ben Aknoun, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout18 Nov 2030
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Interim Coach kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Successful dribbles: 13. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason MB Rouissat will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Rezki Hamroune 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 Hamza Salem was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at MB Rouissat 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. MB Rouissat will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad4 Nov 2030
Words at MB Rouissat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saikou Chorr 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
13 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 93 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
0‑3 against CR Belouizdad, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“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 MB Rouissat know it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MB Rouissat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout28 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 Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Rachid Bennacer
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 12 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. MB Rouissat 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 MB Rouissat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Oct 2030
Hamza Salem 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer 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 MB Rouissat, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Rezki Hamroune’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and MB Rouissat needing him to play as if none of it matters.