From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MC El Bayadh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
7 new faces, and MC El Bayadh 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nabil Lamara and MC El Bayadh agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Abdelkadir Salhi is on it.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at MC El Bayadh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aymen Mouyet 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.
Market16 Nov 2026
Nabil Lamara is 33 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
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From our football correspondent
Steady
Market9 Nov 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.70, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Ammar El Orfi 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between MC El Bayadh and JS Kabylie, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Match7 Nov 2026
JS Kabylie left with the points after a 2‑4 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
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 2‑4 Aissa Benayada left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at MC El Bayadh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aymen Mouyet is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Oussama Gatal asks for a word with the manager
“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 dugout9 Nov 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad2 Nov 2026
8 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Abdelillah Barkat’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to MC El Bayadh.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Marked 8.13 — 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.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Mohamed Toumi slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Mohamed Toumi is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Aissa Benayada could afford to be generous.
Squad2 Nov 2026
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Oct 2026
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.
Match24 Oct 2026
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of Abdelillah Barkat at his very best
Marked 8.00. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at MC El Bayadh.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aymen Mouyet was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Abdellah Meddah trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Looking ahead26 Oct 2026
The leaders are next for MC El Bayadh
CR Belouizdad top the table and they are coming into view. Nothing to lose, which is what every manager says before losing.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Nobody at MC El Bayadh 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match14 Oct 2026
A 2‑1 win over MC Alger, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.37, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad19 Oct 2026
7 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Abdelillah Barkat. 3‑1 against ASO Chlef, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Oussama Gatal
“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 terraces19 Oct 2026
The away end at MC Alger goes home happy
2-1, and a corner of somebody else’s ground that outsang the rest of it. Those coaches leave before dawn and nobody outside them mentions it.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Too much change too quickly at MC El Bayadh
10 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Aymen Mouyet and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Aissa Benayada kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Oct 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” MC El Bayadh have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad12 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MC El Bayadh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Chemseddine Nessakh and MC El Bayadh agree another 1 years.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at MC El Bayadh, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and MC El Bayadh will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Oct 2026
4 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Ammar El Orfi 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mohamed Naâmani and MC El Bayadh agree another 1 years.
Match3 Oct 2026
4 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Match3 Oct 2026
JS Saoura left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad5 Oct 2026
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 38 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. MC El Bayadh will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Sep 2026
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Ammar El Orfi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match26 Sep 2026
MB Rouissat left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Looking ahead28 Sep 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against JS Saoura in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The plan did not have a place for Oussama Fatmi
Nobody at MC El Bayadh 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Ilyes Yaiche beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 10. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Chances created: 6. The column nobody reads carried the whole story of the match, and his name was at the top of it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Sep 2026
MC El Bayadh throw away a 2-goal lead
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with MC Oran the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that MC El Bayadh will enjoy reviewing.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.77 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad21 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MC El Bayadh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
MC El Bayadh are still strangers to each other
8 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Abdelkadir Salhi'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.
Match19 Sep 2026
A 2‑2 draw with MC Oran leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Aissa Benayada after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Sep 2026
0‑3 against CS Constantine, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market14 Sep 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Abdellah Meddah 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 dugout14 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
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 dugout14 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Aissa Benayada after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Abdellah Meddah asks for a word with the manager
“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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
No place for Mohamed Emad in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation MC El Bayadh are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Looking ahead14 Sep 2026
MC Oran next, and one man in the MC El Bayadh dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at MC El Bayadh, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 18 in, 0 out at MC El Bayadh
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 18 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
1 academy graduates step up at MC El Bayadh
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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
MC El Bayadh 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdellah Meddah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market7 Sep 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Rafik Ghoulam is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
USM Alger have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Djamel Belalem slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Djamel Belalem is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mohamed Emad and MC El Bayadh agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Aug 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at MC El Bayadh, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Oussama Fatmi arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Oussama Fatmi has, at MC El Bayadh, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The deal with USM Alger is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Aswan keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The formation has left Oussama Fatmi behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. MC El Bayadh will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Market31 Aug 2026
He is 20, and nobody at MC El Bayadh signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at MC El Bayadh, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer from ES Ben Aknoun for Sofiane Abdellaoui was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
MC El Bayadh had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at MC Oran, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Market24 Aug 2026
He signed expecting a bigger stage than the one he found. It has not taken long, and it has not taken the dressing room long to notice either.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
USM Alger have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Squad24 Aug 2026
MC El Bayadh are still strangers to each other
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: El Masry keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Mohamed Toumi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Aswan have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Al Ahly have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Market17 Aug 2026
Nobody sells a season ticket on a signing like this. Every manager who has been through a bad October wants one anyway, and MC El Bayadh have gone and got theirs early.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and MC El Bayadh did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The deal with MC Oran is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Angers SCO keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Ammar El Orfi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
MC El Bayadh 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Hillal Belkebla has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at MC El Bayadh, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Abdelkadir Salhi and MC El Bayadh agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Ammar El Orfi 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at MC El Bayadh, another week without a signature from Abdelkadir Salhi.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
ES Mostaganem have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Noah Nadje is in the works
MC El Bayadh have made the call to Angers SCO. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
El Masry have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Market3 Aug 2026
The clock runs on Adel Ghanem's contract
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A decision that decides nothing on the pitch and everything in the room. The manager has said, without saying it, whose voice he wants heard when his own is not there.