“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” USM Alger have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.14 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Safi Eddine Atmania will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around USM Alger the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at USM Alger this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Mohamed El Amine Ramdaoui did not need any: 7.76, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.94 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zakaria Draoui was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Farid Boulaya. 3‑1 against Olympique Akbou, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Ahmed Khaldi 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.
Marked 8.39. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at USM Alger.
The dugout21 Dec 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.” Yacine Mahrez kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at USM Alger this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Mohamed El Amine Ramdaoui 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 needed Mohamed El Amine Ramdaoui to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against JS Kabylie, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 2‑2, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Olympique Akbou next, and one man in the USM Alger dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
In brief
The dugoutAhmed Khaldi knocks on the manager's door
8 matches without defeat, and then CR Belouizdad. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at USM Alger training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zakaria Draoui 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.” Taher Ben Khelifa and USM Alger agree another 2 years.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Mohamed El Amine Ramdaoui has come out of that comparison in the side, and USM Alger have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
JS Kabylie next, and one man in the USM Alger dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at USM Alger, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 7.81 for the rest of it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at USM Alger is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Zakaria Draoui 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.
Three points for USM Alger, 1‑0 the final word against MC Oran in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The dugout30 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.” Yacine Mahrez, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
A mark of 7.64 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.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.85, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
It needed Mohamed El Amine Ramdaoui to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against ASO Chlef, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Achref Abada, and the manager let it.
The dugout23 Nov 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.” Yacine Mahrez chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
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 Taher Ben Khelifa is on it.
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.
Ahmed Khaldi 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 used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against ASO Chlef in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at USM Alger. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at USM Alger that is a harder question to answer.
Zakaria Draoui 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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Hocine Dehiri commits to USM Alger for another 3 years.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at USM Alger training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Che Malone 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 point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Yacine Mahrez after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around USM Alger they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at USM Alger this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Che Malone 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 month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Rayane Abdelmadjid Mahrouz is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against MB Rouissat? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
In brief
The dugoutMehdi Boucherit has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutAhmed Khaldi knocks on the manager’s door
Player ratingsChe Malone on a tightrope all afternoon
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.00 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at USM Alger training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zakaria Draoui 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Raouf Benguit. 3‑1 against MC El Bayadh, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Ahmed Khaldi 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 version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.20, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Raouf Benguit was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.03. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
11 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 dugout26 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.” Yacine Mahrez kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
MB Rouissat go through and USM Alger go home, 2‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. MB Rouissat kept coming because nothing stopped them, and USM Alger will be asked about the last half hour all week.
A mark of 7.63 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zakaria Draoui was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mohamed Amine Gherbi and USM Alger agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Zakaria Draoui 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at USM Alger training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Che Malone 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 used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against CS Constantine in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at USM Alger the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Safi Eddine Atmania will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around USM Alger the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at USM Alger this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Mohamed El Amine Ramdaoui is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Salim Boukhanchouche trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
At 22 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at USM Alger training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilyes Chetti is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Islam Merili, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
11 new faces, and USM Alger are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout28 Sep 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Yacine Mahrez to a room that had heard them before.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.88 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at USM Alger this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Salah Eddine Bouziani is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Che Malone was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Yacine Mahrez could afford to be generous.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: SC Aubagne Air Bel keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. CS Constantine moved on, Rayane Abdelmadjid Mahrouz reports back to USM Alger, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Paradou scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what USM Alger can pretend not to have heard.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 18 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The fee is $890.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. MC Alger drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around USM Alger they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
USM Alger had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Ajax Cape Town, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Zakaria Draoui 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 terraces7 Sep 2026
USM Alger spend $890.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $890.0K for Mehdi Boucherit, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
In brief
SquadIlyes Chetti falls out with a teammate over standards
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Montpellier HSC keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at USM Alger training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Che Malone 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.
Add another name to the list: MC El Bayadh have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ziad Moualhi. The answer from USM Alger has not changed — yet.
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.
FC Villefranche 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.
“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 USM Alger, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Monaco keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
USM Alger asked and MC 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.
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.
Ahmed Khaldi 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.
USM Alger have made the call to Stade Brestois. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. USM Alger have lost him in all but the paperwork.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Zakaria Draoui 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 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at USM Alger training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilyes Chetti 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.
USM Alger have made the call to Ajax Cape Town. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
USM Alger and ES Mostaganem have settled on $260.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
$1.2M on the table at MC Alger. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.3M — a club that wants Mohamed Saliou Bangoura enough to be asked twice.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Adam Mahrez 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. Riyad Djabou 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Houssem Benrahma is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The name of Dramane Kamagaté has come up in conversations USM Alger were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at USM Alger training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zakaria Draoui 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.
Ghiles Guenaoui 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.
24 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.
In brief
Squad8 new faces, and USM Alger are still learning each other