Kutlwano Letlhaku 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.
Something was said to Abdelillah Barkat and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Mohamed Toumi has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Kutlwano Letlhaku is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Kutlwano Letlhaku 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at MC El Bayadh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmed Daouda 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 needed Abdelillah Barkat to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against ES Mostaganem, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout30 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 1‑1, and nobody in the MC El Bayadh dressing room was either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ahmed Daouda was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
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.
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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at MC El Bayadh. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
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.
8.17. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. MC El Bayadh told Ammar El Orfi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
6 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.
At 20 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
Two goals and a mark of 9.12 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
1 for Adel Ghanem, marked 7.59, 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.
Abdelkadir Salhi 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between MC El Bayadh and ES Ben Aknoun, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Ahmed Daouda 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Adel Ghanem has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Kutlwano Letlhaku 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 Ahmed Daouda was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 92. Olympique Akbou had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
It needed Ilyes Yaiche to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Olympique Akbou, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“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.
“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.
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.
“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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at MC El Bayadh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Djamel Belalem 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 not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. MC El Bayadh told Mohammed El Hachami Chacha something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ahmed Daouda was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 22 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.
A 1‑0 win over CR Belouizdad, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
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.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.70 on the card, and the MC El Bayadh support went home talking about one name.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Islam Belmadi, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
MC Alger go through and MC El Bayadh go home, 0‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Kutlwano Letlhaku 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. Houssem Tarzout is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at MC El Bayadh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmed Daouda 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.” Ousmane Coulibaly and MC El Bayadh agree another 2 years.
Kutlwano Letlhaku 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 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 dugout5 Oct 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 1‑3 Islam Belmadi left the room before anybody could ask which.
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 dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Abdellah Meddah'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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 15 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Abdelkadir Salhi 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. Ahmed Daouda 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.
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
JS Saoura made MC El Bayadh work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Hamza Yacoub has improved at 24, 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.
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout28 Sep 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.” Islam Belmadi kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
In brief
Player ratingsA defender's afternoon for Ammar El Orfi
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
It 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.
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.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
9 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.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. MC El Bayadh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what MC El Bayadh can pretend not to have heard.
Kutlwano Letlhaku was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Nobody 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.
23 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. MC El Bayadh lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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
Deadline passes with 21 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at MC El Bayadh 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.
Kutlwano Letlhaku 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.
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 words a physio says slowly. 30 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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Petrojet keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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: Anis Mahdi Mendil from MC Oran for $280.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Ahmed Daouda 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.
MC El Bayadh asked and MC Oran said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at MC El Bayadh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmed Daouda 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 loan enquiry to Liberty Professionals: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
In brief
Squad6 new faces, and MC El Bayadh are still learning each other
MC El Bayadh had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at MC Alger, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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.
Mamelodi Sundowns 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.
Olympique Akbou 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Anis Aït-Amarat has his answer from MC El Bayadh; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at MC El Bayadh would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sofiane Benrahma trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Mohamed Toumi
SquadMohamed Toumi is training like a man with a point to make
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. MC El Bayadh have done the hard part with MC Alger, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ahmed Daouda was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Houssem Benayada 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. Rafik Benrahma 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. Karim Bennacer 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.
“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.
“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.
Abdelkadir Salhi 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 Aug 2026
Words at MC El Bayadh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmed Daouda 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. Al Ahly have kept their man, and MC El Bayadh go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
“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.
MC El Bayadh have made the call to University of Pretoria. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
MC El Bayadh have made the call to MC Alger. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.