From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.86, and nobody on the pitch better.
Match19 Dec 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
El Mehdi Karnass 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 dugout21 Dec 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Too much change too quickly at MC El Bayadh
6 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Half-satisfied: Islam Belmadi on the draw
“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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Nabil Lamara knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nabil Lamara trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at MC El Bayadh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdessamad Bounaama 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Dec 2026
Sid Ali Lakroum and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match12 Dec 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Benjamin Santelli, and the manager let it.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Islam Belmadi after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Abdelkadir Salhi has become a man the manager trusts
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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
One booking too many, and El Mehdi Karnass sits out. MC El Bayadh lose him for the sort of avoidable reason that makes a manager's week longer.
Market14 Dec 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Djamel Belalem has his answer from MC El Bayadh; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Looking ahead14 Dec 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Abdellah Meddah’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and MC El Bayadh needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market7 Dec 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.
Match7 Dec 2026
Position 14, 6 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Benjamin Santelli commits to MC El Bayadh for another 1 years.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Benjamin Santelli and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match5 Dec 2026
USM Khenchela left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad7 Dec 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 dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Nabil Lamara
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 2‑3 defeat, delivered by Islam Belmadi to a room that had heard them before.
Squad7 Dec 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad30 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at MC El Bayadh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdellah Meddah is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Marked 7.72. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Match28 Nov 2026
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 2‑2 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Looking ahead30 Nov 2026
USM Khenchela 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.
The dugout30 Nov 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.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The plan did not have a place for Adel Ghanem
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.48, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match21 Nov 2026
It had gone 9 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Benjamin Santelli 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Benjamin Santelli. 3‑1 against Olympique Akbou, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Match21 Nov 2026
MC El Bayadh settle it inside twenty minutes
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Olympique Akbou spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Squad23 Nov 2026
MC El Bayadh are still strangers to each other
7 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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Islam Belmadi on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Squad23 Nov 2026
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. MC El Bayadh have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
The dugout23 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mathias Fonnicola, and the manager let it.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lahcene Bouziane was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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
The division's best last weekend was a MC El Bayadh man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Abdelillah Barkat was the best thing in any of them.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Olympique Akbou 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
Uneasy
Match7 Nov 2026
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.
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
Two goals and a mark of 8.38 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
Squad9 Nov 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 dugout9 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Islam Belmadi was not hiding it after 2‑2, and nobody in the MC El Bayadh dressing room was either.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Nabil Lamara 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Nov 2026
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.
Match31 Oct 2026
8 matches without a win for MC El Bayadh
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around MC El Bayadh are no longer polite ones.
Squad2 Nov 2026
El Mehdi Karnass and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout2 Nov 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
0‑1 to CR Belouizdad, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Islam Belmadi after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
MC El Bayadh will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
El Mehdi Karnass 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Oct 2026
No end in sight to MC El Bayadh's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at MC El Bayadh has to find a result from somewhere.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Yakoub Gassi: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” MC El Bayadh have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match24 Oct 2026
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Adel Ghanem
“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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
MC El Bayadh are still strangers to each other
14 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lahcene Bouziane was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Oct 2026
12 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.
Match14 Oct 2026
MC Alger ended it 0‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Match17 Oct 2026
No end in sight to MC El Bayadh's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at MC El Bayadh has to find a result from somewhere.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Lahcene Bouziane: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” MC El Bayadh have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Adel Ghanem is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Benjamin Santelli 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at MC El Bayadh can tell you which week it ends in.
Match17 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 39, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
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
Benjamin Santelli 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
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Adel Ghanem and MC El Bayadh agree another 4 years.
Squad12 Oct 2026
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Squad12 Oct 2026
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 El Bayadh will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Abdessamad Bounaama, and the manager let it.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
ASO Chlef 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
Crisis
Match3 Oct 2026
0‑3 against JS Saoura, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A move Mathias Fonnicola would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Mathias Fonnicola is living that version at MC El Bayadh, and it tends to show in the first month.
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
“The easiest signature of my career.” Benjamin Santelli and MC El Bayadh agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 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.
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
“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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Nobody left the MC El Bayadh dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Islam Belmadi to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2026
There were 7 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Ammar El Orfi pops up at the right end — 7.80
7.80, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at MC El Bayadh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdellah Meddah 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Ammar El Orfi had MC El Bayadh level again within 4 minutes, and MB Rouissat never got to play with a lead at all.
Match26 Sep 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Islam Belmadi was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the MC El Bayadh dressing room was either.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and MC El Bayadh will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Ammar El Orfi goes up and wins it — 7.59
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 7.59 for the rest of it.
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
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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad21 Sep 2026
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ramadan Mostafa commits to MC El Bayadh for another 3 years.
Market21 Sep 2026
MC El Bayadh have let the market know Ammar El Orfi can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
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
A move Ramadan Mostafa would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ramadan Mostafa is living that version at MC El Bayadh, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at MC El Bayadh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lahcene Bouziane is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“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.
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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
8 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.
The dugout14 Sep 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 0‑3 Islam Belmadi left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ramadan Mostafa and MC El Bayadh agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about 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
MC El Bayadh close the window on a squad of their own making
17 in and 0 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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
No deal for Ziad Moualhi at that price
MC El Bayadh offered $14.0K; USM Alger said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Lahcene Bouziane 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.
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
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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
No investment in the facilities at MC El Bayadh
Nothing about this will be in a press release. A plan went upstairs, came back rejected, and the version of the club that would have existed in three years' time just quietly stopped being possible.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at MC El Bayadh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdessamad Bounaama 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.
Looking ahead7 Sep 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Ilyes Yaiche’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and MC El Bayadh needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $15.0K — a club that wants Ziad Moualhi enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The offer went to USM Alger this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
$15.0K was the most the club would pay and JS Kabylie were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. USM Alger have kept their man, and MC El Bayadh go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MC El Bayadh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Aug 2026
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.
Market31 Aug 2026
MC El Bayadh have made Ilyes Yaiche available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
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.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $15.0K — a club that wants Oussama Haroun enough to be asked twice.
Squad24 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MC El Bayadh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The offer went to JS Kabylie this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Dhayfallah Kadri and MC El Bayadh agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at MC El Bayadh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yakoub Gassi 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
A season-long audition: MC Alger still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are MC El Bayadh's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MC El Bayadh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Dhayfallah Kadri has just signed for MC El Bayadh, and for once the answer mattered.
Transfer targets17 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Dhayfallah Kadri is 20, and MC El Bayadh have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Squad17 Aug 2026
5 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
Anis Khemaissia gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Anis Khemaissia has just signed for MC El Bayadh, and for once the answer mattered.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Hicham Belmadi has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Nassim Ghoulam is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Riyad Mahrez 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. USM Alger have kept their man, and MC El Bayadh go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.