The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around ENPPI people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” ENPPI have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 The request is on a desk at ENPPI, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Youssef Labib will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around ENPPI the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ahmed Nader Hawash 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.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Ibrahim Ayoola has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emad Mayhoub was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Emad Tarek is on it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Omar El Azab
The dugoutAhmed Shadad knocks on the manager’s door
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” ENPPI have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. ENPPI have lost him in all but the paperwork.
ENPPI had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at AEK, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Ahmed Nader Hawash 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Anas Roshdy and ENPPI agree another 4 years.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Emad Mayhoub 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at ENPPI, another week without a signature from Marwan Daoud.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Sobhy Soliman has his answer from ENPPI; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Fares Hatem
The offer from Zamalek for Ahmed Shadad 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ENPPI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Makhlouf 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.
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. ENPPI lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 ENPPI, and it is not being withdrawn.
Ahmed Nader Hawash 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. Emad Mayhoub 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
In brief
The dugoutAhmed Shadad knocks on the manager’s door
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Youssef Labib
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” ENPPI have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Ahmed Nader Hawash 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. Emad Mayhoub 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ENPPI they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ENPPI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emad Mayhoub 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.