The words a physio says slowly. 58 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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 The request is on a desk at Ittihad, and it is not being withdrawn.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Ittihad had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ittihad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Dealt with internally, which is the phrase a club uses when it would rather nobody asked twice. He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday.
66 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ittihad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 May 2029
Words at Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adam Yakubu 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sunusi Ibrahim trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Position 5, 58 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Abdelghani Mohamed’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
In brief
SquadAdam Yakubu is training like a man with a point to make
The words a physio says slowly. 82 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ittihad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mahmoud Shabana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
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.
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 Mohamed Seha is on it.
8 matches without a win, and then this, against Military Production. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Baron Ochieng was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ahmed Ibrahim 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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Aswan will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Aswan are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Seidu Basit 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.
This is not rotation. Mostafa Abdelrasoul has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Aswan is pretending otherwise.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Baron Ochieng 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 change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Isaac Saviour's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Ismaily in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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. Makarona has moved up it.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Aswan can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Baron Ochieng 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.
Mostafa Anani 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Trezeguet Sobhi after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
The manager has not finished forgetting Victor Okoro's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Trezeguet Sobhi has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
14 combined actions and 6.93. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
This is not rotation. Mostafa Abdelrasoul has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Aswan is pretending otherwise.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Victor Okoro 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ibrahim El Nenny 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. Salah El Wensh 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Shikabala Mohsen 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Aswan can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aswan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Baron Ochieng 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.
Aswan asked and El Masry said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Trezeguet Sobhi on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Aswan can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Two goals and a mark of 8.31 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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 Aswan, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 1 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Seidu Basit 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Aswan and Al Ahly, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Masr El Makasa waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Aswan is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Aswan can pretend not to have heard.
Baron Ochieng 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.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Isaac Saviour 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.
Ahmed Ibrahim 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raphael Ayagwa 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mostafa Disha 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.
Seidu Basit 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Aswan can tell you which week it ends in.
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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Aswan is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
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.” Trezeguet Sobhi chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Aswan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mostafa Disha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Aswan, another week without a signature from Victor Okoro.
Something was said to Isaac Saviour and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout6 Nov 2028
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 Trezeguet Sobhi left the room before anybody could ask which.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aswan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raphael Ayagwa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Trezeguet Sobhi after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Aswan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Baron Ochieng’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Aswan needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 16 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Aswan, and it is not being withdrawn.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and El Dakhleya were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raphael Ayagwa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ahmed Ibrahim 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Aswan can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Aswan people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Baron Ochieng 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.
13 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raphael Ayagwa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Aswan asked and Al Ahly said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Aswan waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ittihad is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. ENPPI have kept their man, and Ittihad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Words at Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mahmoud Shabana 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.
Ahmed Atef 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Ittihad has been clear about where Mahmoud Dunga stands, which is more than many ever get.
“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 Aswan, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Zamalek keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Seidu Basit 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.
Aswan asked and Al Gaish 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Aswan can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al Ahly keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Al Ahly waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ittihad is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Everything agreed with Al Gaish, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Words at Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdelghani Mohamed 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sunusi Ibrahim trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Ittihad people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from ENPPI for Youssef Nader 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.
$42.0K was the most the club would pay and Al Gaish were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mahmoud Shabana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and El Dakhleya waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ittihad is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Ittihad, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. El Masry have kept their man, and Ittihad go back to a list with one name crossed off 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good 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 Ittihad can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Isaac Saviour will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ittihad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mahmoud Shabana 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Ittihad will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until John Okoye Ebuka signs something — a contract at Ittihad or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Position 4, 65 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ittihad, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Ittihad have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ittihad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al Ahly have kept their man, and Ittihad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets12 Jun 2028
$17.0K settles it between the clubs for Mahmoud Hamdy
El Masry have accepted the money. What Ittihad do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The chase for Ashraf El Wensh ended with $150.0K changing hands and Masr El Makasa out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Words at Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mahmoud Shabana 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.
Mohamed Atef 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.
Add another name to the list: ENPPI have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Youssef Nader. The answer from Ittihad has not changed — yet.
Qualification is secured, and next season the big floodlit nights are continental ones. For the players it is a stage; for the accounts it is a lifeline; for the supporters it is passports.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ittihad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Ittihad will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Ittihad asked and El Masry 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 offer went to Police Union this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
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 Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ittihad can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ittihad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Arnau Casas 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.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mahmoud Shabana 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 watch every Ittihad game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al-Shabab runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ittihad, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Ittihad would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 39 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Isaac Saviour will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ittihad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Catarino Pascoal and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arnau Casas 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ittihad will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Ittihad, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ittihad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Arnau Casas 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.
“I watch every Ittihad game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al-Shabab runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 74 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.55 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Words at Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mahmoud Shabana 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 found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Ittihad pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 98 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ittihad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Arnau Casas 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Mohamed Tony 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 90. Ismaily had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
6 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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al Ahly keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Military Production waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ittihad is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Sunusi Ibrahim reports back to Ittihad with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 4 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Ittihad 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Zamalek is saying, and nobody at Ittihad is enjoying the guessing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ittihad can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Isaac Saviour will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ittihad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Mahmoud Shabana 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 Jan 2028
Arnau Casas 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ravenna have kept their man, and Ittihad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Something was said to Mahmoud Shabana and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Military Production waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ittihad is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ittihad can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ittihad asked and Nyíregyháza said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A 1‑0 win over Masr El Makasa, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
8 goals and a season average of 7.31. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Tony 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 afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Isaac Saviour will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ittihad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Arnau Casas 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Catarino Pascoal, and the manager let it.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Tony 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.
4 matches without defeat, and then Zamalek. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
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 Ashraf Ashour to a room that had heard them before.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Isaac Saviour will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ittihad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
He is 19 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 8.45 — 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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Tony 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.
Marked 8.10 — 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNasser Nasser did the work nobody counts — 6.77
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Youssef Wael has, at Ittihad, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ittihad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Arnau Casas 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Tony 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sunusi Ibrahim trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Petrojet in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Ittihad has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ittihad will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ittihad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Arnau Casas 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 19 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Tony was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Arnau Casas and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
41 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ittihad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 16 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 51 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Ittihad, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Isaac Saviour will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ittihad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Arnau Casas 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.
El Masry left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Tony 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.
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ittihad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ittihad will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mabululu provided it, and the 8.52 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ittihad can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Ittihad people have started saying his name in the past tense.
5 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ittihad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ittihad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Mahmoud Shabana 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.
47 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ittihad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ittihad will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Ittihad people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ittihad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Sochi keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Every paper's favourite story and every manager's least. What happened is being dealt with internally, which is the phrase clubs use when they would rather nobody asked again.
Khaled Abdelfattah 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.
Ittihad asked and Ludogorets said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.