Haras El Hodoud had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Mamelodi Sundowns, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Magli 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. Mamelodi Sundowns have kept their man, and Haras El Hodoud go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Cadu is in the works
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Amr Gamal
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Emad Salah
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Haras El Hodoud has to find a result from somewhere.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.87 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Mahmoud El Zanfaly 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 16 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Magli 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.
Half the programme played, position 12, 18 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Bassem Zaki after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
77 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Haras El Hodoud lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.02 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 Haras El Hodoud 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: Amr Gamal. 1‑0 against Ittihad, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Magli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Bassem Zaki on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Al Ahly next, and one man in the Haras El Hodoud dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
93 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Haras El Hodoud lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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 7.93 for the rest of it.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Botafogo is saying, and nobody at Haras El Hodoud is enjoying the guessing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Flamengo have kept their man, and Haras El Hodoud go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mohamed Magli. 1‑0 against Ghazl El Mahalla, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Magli 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 did not go to Police Union to sit and watch. I want to come back to Haras El Hodoud and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Bassem Zaki on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
39 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Haras El Hodoud lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Haras El Hodoud this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Mahmoud El Badry has come up in conversations Haras El Hodoud were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
A loan enquiry to Mamelodi Sundowns: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
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.
“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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Mamelodi Sundowns keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atlético Mineiro have kept their man, and Haras El Hodoud go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Haras El Hodoud this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Mahmoud El Badry has come up in conversations Haras El Hodoud were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ali Hamdi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Abdallah Hegazi 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Hossam Fathy 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.
Haras El Hodoud have made the call to Santos. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.