Fahem Benaïssa 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.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
8.18. 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Umberto Bellini on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Mantova, another week without a signature from Giacomo Fedel.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Words at Mantova training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ali Ezzat 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.
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Mantova lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mantova can pretend not to have heard.
Alessio Castellini 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.
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Carlo Attanasio is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Simone Trimboli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mantova this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Mantova asked and AS Roma said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mantova can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Fahem Benaïssa 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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Mantova can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Mantova they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Flavio Paoletti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ettore Gliozzi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Mantova 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Wadi Degla can pretend not to have heard.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Franck Boli 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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Mahmoud Diasty has improved at 28, 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Wadi Degla are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“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 Wadi Degla, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Wadi Degla is running low.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kelvin Leku will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Wadi Degla the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nader Alaa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Wadi Degla. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Wadi Degla, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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 Wadi Degla, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Wadi Degla they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Franck Boli 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Yassin Hossam was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Wadi Degla could ask drops and the wages Ali Ezzat can ask rise.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ahmed Ayman will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Wadi Degla the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Sayed Konasha has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Wadi Degla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Wadi Degla have gone to Zamalek with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Obaid Salem has just signed for Wadi Degla, and for once the answer mattered.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Wadi Degla lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ali Ezzat will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Wadi Degla the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Franck Boli 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 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.
56 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Wadi Degla lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Wadi Degla is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Franck Boli 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Ahmed El Shimi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Amr Hossam trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Atef El Hakim has written the date down.
86 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Wadi Degla 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 Wadi Degla, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Wadi Degla have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ali Ezzat will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Wadi Degla the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Franck Boli 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.
Marked 8.13 — 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
SquadWords at Wadi Degla training over how hard people work
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Ahmed Ali Amin
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Wadi Degla lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Mahmoud Diasty scored in the 89th minute, Masr El Makasa had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Wadi Degla took the lot.
“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 Wadi Degla, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ali Ezzat will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Wadi Degla the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Franck Boli 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 21 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.
59 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Wadi Degla lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Wadi Degla can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Wadi Degla they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Ali Ezzat has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Franck Boli 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.
Wadi Degla asked and Al-Ettifaq said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
0‑2 to Arab Contractors, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout31 Jan 2028
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 Mohamed Ashour to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
SquadWords at Wadi Degla training over how hard people work
Transfer targetsA loan move for Moamen Sherif is in the works