Marked for Hussein Faisal
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad14 Sep 2026
Hussein Faisal and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets14 Sep 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
A 1‑0 win over Haras El Hodoud, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.21, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout14 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Arab Contractors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Adel 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 ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Sep 2026
5 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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Bassem Trezeguet could afford to be generous.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Arab Contractors can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Arab Contractors close the window on a squad of their own making
16 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
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Bahia is saying, and nobody at Arab Contractors is enjoying the guessing.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad7 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 Arab Contractors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets7 Sep 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Arab Contractors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fortune Bassey 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match29 Aug 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑1 against Aswan, and it could have been more.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A brace, and Hussein Faisal takes the afternoon — 7.88
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Hussein Faisal provided it, and the 7.88 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
No thanks: Bruninho rejects the move
Arab Contractors had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Bragantino, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Match29 Aug 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Arab Contractors have 3 straight wins of it.
Market31 Aug 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Arab Contractors is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match29 Aug 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Arab Contractors and Aswan, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Transfer targets31 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Ahmed Ouled Behi 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 terraces31 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Youssef Abdelhafiz 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.