Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Houssem Tarzout is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Paradou training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Taha Yassine Tahar 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 23 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.
Marked 8.11. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Paradou.
The dugout28 Dec 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.” Omar Tahrat, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Omar Tahrat after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. MB Rouissat defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
8 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
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 Salah Eddine Zaoui is on it.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 11 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Ben Ahmed Kohili, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.69
A mark of 7.69 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.01, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
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.
Marked 8.06. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Paradou.
The dugout14 Dec 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.” Omar Tahrat, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
0‑3 against CS Constantine, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Paradou this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 21 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Paradou will try not to make too much of it.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Omar Tahrat after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Younes Badani is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Paradou have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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 dugout30 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 0‑3 Omar Tahrat left the room before anybody could ask which.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ben Ahmed Kohili provided it, and the 8.80 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.95, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.92 beside his name.
Toufik Moussaoui 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.
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.
Marked 8.00 — 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 dugout23 Nov 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.” Omar Tahrat, on a 4‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Toufik Moussaoui was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Abderrahmane Bacha’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Paradou needing him to play as if none of it matters.
A side in position 3 visits next. The result will not make anybody’s season and it could quietly break the shape of one, which is why the manager has been watching the video since Sunday.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Fouad Kermiche plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Paradou this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ben Ahmed Kohili. 1‑0 against ES Mostaganem, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 7.99 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Paradou had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout9 Nov 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.” Omar Tahrat, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Nobody at Paradou will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ben Ahmed Kohili did not need any: 7.91, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Paradou will try very hard not to make too much of it.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Younes Badani is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Paradou 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
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Omar Tahrat was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Paradou dressing room was either.
ES Mostaganem next, and one man in the Paradou dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Nobody at Paradou will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
A point taken on 85 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
“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.
Shots: 4. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
The 89th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Mustapha Soukkou decided nobody was going anywhere. JS Saoura had no time left to answer.
Two goals and a mark of 8.45 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 21 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.
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.
Toufik Moussaoui 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Mustapha Soukkou 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Paradou this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against ES Ben Aknoun in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
At 19 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Abderrahmane Bacha. 1‑0 against Olympique Akbou, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Omar Tahrat on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Ben Ahmed Kohili has moved up it.
Nobody at Paradou 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.
0‑4 to JS Kabylie, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Toufik Moussaoui 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Omar Tahrat after 0‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Beaten 4 times, 4 saves, and an afternoon that will go on his record whether it was his fault or the defence’s. It is the quiet unfairness of the position.
6 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Taha Yassine Tahar signs something — a contract at Paradou or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody at Paradou 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.
Toufik Moussaoui 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.
At 20 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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Omar Tahrat chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Amayas Boudedja’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Paradou needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
10 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Paradou know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ben Ahmed Kohili did not need any: 7.60, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Paradou can pretend not to have heard.
Paradou asked and FC Nantes said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is 21 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.
A point taken on 85 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
“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.
CR Belouizdad next, and one man in the Paradou dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The offer from MC Alger for Taha Yassine Tahar 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Paradou can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 13 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Paradou 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.
Paradou asked and Montpellier HSC said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Lalaina Rafanomezantsoa 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.
The plan went upstairs and came back down. Nothing about that will make a headline anywhere else, and everybody who works at the training ground will remember it for years.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Mohamed Aït El Hadj’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Paradou needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Paradou can pretend not to have heard.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Moncef Bisker was one of the reasons people came, and $360.0K does not replace that by itself.
The phone has started ringing about Taha Yassine Tahar again, and this time the name on the line is MC Alger. Paradou are listening politely and promising nothing.
The offer from ES Setif for Mohammed Kerroum 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: LOSC Lille keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
“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 Paradou, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from JS Kabylie for Abdallah Bendouma 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Sochaux keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Toufik Moussaoui 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 Mohammed Kerroum has come up in conversations Paradou were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Paradou have made the call to Masr El Makasa. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Moncef Bisker falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Paradou have done the hard part with Sochaux, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Paradou this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Paradou have done the hard part with Masr El Makasa, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Toufik Moussaoui 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 phone has started ringing about Abdallah Bendouma again, and this time the name on the line is JS Kabylie. Paradou are listening politely and promising nothing.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Rafik Atal is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Paradou, another week without a signature from Lalaina Rafanomezantsoa.
Still no offer on the table, and Mohamed Aït El Hadj’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Masr El Makasa 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Moncef Bisker falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Paradou would admit. It shows on Saturdays.