“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” CR Belouizdad had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.06 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Paradou is saying, and nobody at MC Alger is enjoying the guessing.
Achille Anani 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 ratings18 Jan 2027
Ahmed Al Naqbi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.95. 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.
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. MC Alger lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Successful dribbles: 27. 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 medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. MC Alger have done the hard part with MC Oran, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ahmed Al Naqbi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. MC Alger lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Zakaria Naïdji obliged against USM Khenchela. 2‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is MC Alger.
Two goals and a mark of 6.84 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. MC Alger will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
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.
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. MC Alger lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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. 13 actions, 6.95, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Merwane Khelif 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 door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at MC Alger training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Zoungrana 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.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Brandon Petersen knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at MC Alger, and 5 appearances in 18 say he has earned the hearing.
In brief
The dugoutBrandon Petersen is still being punished for one mistake
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. MC Alger lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Ahmed Al Naqbi scored in the 86th minute, MC Oran had already begun thinking about the journey home, and MC Alger took the lot.
Position 3, 28 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MC Alger 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 47 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Matías Palacios scored, was marked 7.71, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
55 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. MC Alger lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Marked 8.07. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at MC Alger.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at MC Alger training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Zoungrana 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Mohamed Zoungrana has come out of that comparison in the side, and MC Alger have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. MC Alger lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason MC Alger will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MC Alger this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
8.03. 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 37 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason MC Alger will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
1 for Matías Palacios, marked 7.91, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MC Alger 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 Ahmed Al Naqbi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” MC Alger have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason MC Alger will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Achille Anani 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at MC Alger training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Zoungrana 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at MC Alger has been clear about where Walid Ouabdi stands, which is more than many ever get.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against USM Khenchela in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Facundo Kruspzky signs something — a contract at MC Alger or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody at MC Alger will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Mohamed Benkhemassa has written the date down.
In brief
The dugoutWalid Ouabdi knocks on the manager's door
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Ahmed Al Naqbi scored in the 89th minute, ES Ben Aknoun had already begun thinking about the journey home, and MC Alger took the lot.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason MC Alger will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ahmed Al Naqbi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. MC Alger will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Facundo Kruspzky was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at MC Alger training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmed Al Naqbi 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 club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
JS Kabylie will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. MC Alger were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 57 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MC Alger this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. JS Kabylie tried to reorganise, MC Alger did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Marked 8.47 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Marked 8.04. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at MC Alger.
Squad26 Oct 2026
8 new faces, and MC Alger are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. MC Alger will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
1 for Matías Palacios, marked 7.88, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Ahmed Al Naqbi
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason MC Alger will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Achille Anani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at MC Alger training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmed Al Naqbi 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 watch every MC Alger game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at ASO Chlef runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. MC Alger will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at MC Alger, another week without a signature from Mickaël Le Bihan.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Ishak Talal Boussouf’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and MC Alger needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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 Achille Anani has written the date down.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 82 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MC Alger this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Matías Palacios is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
1 for Mohamed Zoungrana, marked 7.86, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
1 for Matías Palacios, marked 7.95, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Achille Anani was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at MC Alger training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmed Al Naqbi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Mohamed Medjani could afford to be generous.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against USM Alger in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at MC Alger training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmed Al Naqbi 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.
Ayoub Abdellaoui 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 manager has a list and the board has a condition attached to it. That is not a crisis — half of football works this way — but it decides which of the two of them gets his way in August.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Matías Palacios provided it, and the 8.28 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.92 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what MC Alger can pretend not to have heard.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Abdelkader Menezla reports back to MC Alger with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Facundo Kruspzky 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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about MC Alger and MB Rouissat in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. MC Alger lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
MC Alger offered $2.3M; Paradou said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
MC Alger close the window on a squad of their own making
22 in and 6 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.
Facundo Kruspzky 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.
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.
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 words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what MC Alger can pretend not to have heard.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. MC Alger have paid $3.5M for Ahmed Al Naqbi, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Al Wahda did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $3.2M for Facundo Kruspzky, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
The offer went to Paradou 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.
Kaizer Chiefs did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $1.2M for Brandon Petersen, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
35 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. MC Alger lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
MC Alger and Al Ahli have settled on $3.5M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The deal with Al Wahda 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 right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The offer went to Kaizer Chiefs 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.
MC Oran paid $2.1M and MC Alger took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Ayoub Abdellaoui was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The name of Mehdi Boucherit has come up in conversations MC Alger were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
MC Alger asked and USM Alger said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
44 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. MC Alger lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $9.5M has been paid because Matías Palacios is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Le Havre AC is saying, and nobody at MC Alger is enjoying the guessing.
Mohamed Zoungrana 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.
MC Alger asked and Paradou said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Matías Palacios from Al Ain for $9.5M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and MC Alger know which stage they are at.
52 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. MC Alger lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Al Ain have accepted the money. What MC Alger do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. MC Alger have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The name of Mohamed Saliou Bangoura has come up in conversations MC Alger were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Stade de Reims is saying, and nobody at MC Alger is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MC Alger this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
MC Alger have gone to Al Ain with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Ayoub Abdellaoui and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at MC Alger training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Zoungrana 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. Cagliari have kept their man, and MC Alger go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The name of Moslem Anatouf has come up in conversations MC Alger were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. MC Alger know it, and so does everybody who watches him.