Marked for Ali Hamdi
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Jan 2027
A fracture rules Hassan Magdy out for 84 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al Gaish will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market18 Jan 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Al Gaish have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market18 Jan 2027
“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.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al Gaish have done the hard part with Nasarawa United, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Free State Stars keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Karim Tarek in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al Gaish this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al Jazira have kept their man, and Al Gaish go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
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.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Ahmed Ali
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad4 Jan 2027
99 days out for Hassan Magdy after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al Gaish will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match2 Jan 2027
0‑4 to Al Ahly, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Market4 Jan 2027
Ali Hamdi hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Al Gaish can pretend not to have heard.
Market4 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mohamed Shaaban will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al Gaish the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Al Gaish
Karim Tarek 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Camacho 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.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ikorodu City have kept their man, and Al Gaish go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market4 Jan 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Islam Mohareb has his answer from Al Gaish; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
In brief
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The dugout
Houssem Eddine Souissi gets it from the manager
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Boardroom
Nobody left the Al Gaish dressing room in a hurry
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Al Gaish
Ismaïl Ouro-Agoro and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Al Gaish
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Camacho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad2 Nov 2026
The captaincy has been taken off Amro Tarek. Al Gaish will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Camacho shuts the door
Defensive actions: 14, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
The dugout2 Nov 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Bookings catch up with Ali Hamdi
One yellow too many, and a match watched from the stand. The most avoidable absence in football, and Al Gaish will feel it on Saturday.
Match31 Oct 2026
Point won or two lost for Al Gaish?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Ismaily? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al Gaish may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Karim Tarek in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al Gaish this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Camacho 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ismaïl Ouro-Agoro. 2‑1 against Police Union, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match26 Sep 2026
Al Gaish settle it inside twenty minutes
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Police Union spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.28 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Ismaïl Ouro-Agoro was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.22. 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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match29 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑3 by Ittihad, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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.
Market31 Aug 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al Gaish people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Karim Tarek in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al Gaish this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Al Gaish asked and Mamelodi Sundowns 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 dugout31 Aug 2026
Mohamed Awad gets it from the manager
“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.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
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 Ashraf Warda left the room before anybody could ask which.