“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what El Masry can pretend not to have heard.
Karim El Eraki 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at El Masry training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hassan Ali 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.
Nobody at El Masry 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Bambo has come out of that comparison in the side, and El Masry have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at El Masry this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.20 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Hassan Ali 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 point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Abdallah Ghaly after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
Al Gaish next, and one man in the El Masry dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abdo Nader will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around El Masry the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at El Masry this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Masr El Makasa left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout19 Oct 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Abdallah Ghaly to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Hassan Ali 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.