Marked for Mohamed El Sayed
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings26 Nov 2029
Successful dribbles: 40. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match21 Nov 2029
Al Gaish march on in the cup
ENPPI are out and Al Gaish go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Market26 Nov 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ibrahim Al-Dawoud will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al Gaish the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match24 Nov 2029
Al Gaish cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad26 Nov 2029
A falling-out at Al Gaish
Mahmoud Abou-Gouda and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Karim Tarek 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 terraces26 Nov 2029
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Mohamed El Sayed 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.
Player ratings26 Nov 2029
Ninety minutes of Mohamed Refat at his very best
Marked 8.10. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Al Gaish.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings19 Nov 2029
Successful dribbles: 38. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings19 Nov 2029
A defender's goal wins it for Al Gaish — 7.68
1 for Yehia Mostafa, marked 7.68, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
The dugout19 Nov 2029
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad19 Nov 2029
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.
Match17 Nov 2029
The drought breaks for Al Gaish
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Smouha were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Match17 Nov 2029
Three points for Al Gaish, 2‑0 the final word against Smouha in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings19 Nov 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.16, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Words at Al Gaish training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed El Sayed 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.
The dugout19 Nov 2029
Karim Tarek dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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Squad
Ali Gabr: “I am not a substitute”
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The dugout
Ibrahim Al-Dawoud gets it from the manager
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match10 Nov 2029
No end in sight to Al Gaish's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al Gaish has to find a result from somewhere.
Match10 Nov 2029
The goals have deserted Al Gaish
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Al Gaish can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad12 Nov 2029
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.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Mohamed El Sayed 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.
Squad12 Nov 2029
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Squad12 Nov 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Hossam Awad commits to Al Gaish for another 3 years.
Market12 Nov 2029
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout12 Nov 2029
A promise honoured at Al Gaish
Something was said to Mohamed Refat and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout12 Nov 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Interim Coach was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Al Gaish dressing room was either.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad15 Oct 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ahmed Abdallah
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Gaish lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings15 Oct 2029
Successful dribbles: 30. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings15 Oct 2029
Up for the corner, and Yehia Mostafa delivers — 7.35
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Yehia Mostafa scored, was marked 7.35, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The dugout15 Oct 2029
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad15 Oct 2029
Mahmoud Abou-Gouda 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.
Match13 Oct 2029
A bad afternoon for Al Gaish against Aswan
2‑3 to Aswan, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad15 Oct 2029
A row about effort at Al Gaish
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and El Sayed Osama was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout15 Oct 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Karim Tarek, and the manager let it.
Match13 Oct 2029
No time for Aswan to settle
The goal that put Aswan ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Al Gaish equalised, 3 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Jul 2029
Diego Augusto damages knee ligaments — 19 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 19 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.
Squad9 Jul 2029
A fracture rules Emad Fathi out for 102 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.
Market9 Jul 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al Gaish is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad9 Jul 2029
At 23 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.
The dugout9 Jul 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Transfer targets9 Jul 2029
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Sporting CP is saying, and nobody at Al Gaish is enjoying the guessing.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Words exchanged at Al Gaish
Emad Hamdi 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.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2029
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.
Market9 Jul 2029
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Jan 2029
18 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al Gaish lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market29 Jan 2029
Yehia Mostafa 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.
Match27 Jan 2029
No end in sight to Al Gaish's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al Gaish has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Emad Hamdi 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.
Match27 Jan 2029
Al Gaish cannot find the net
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Transfer targets29 Jan 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Petrojet have kept their man, and Al Gaish go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings29 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Mohamed El Sayed 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.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Walid Gabr: “I am not a substitute”
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Al Gaish will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad25 Dec 2028
54 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al Gaish lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market25 Dec 2028
Islam Mohareb 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.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad25 Dec 2028
A falling-out at Al Gaish
Emad Hamdi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match23 Dec 2028
0‑1 to Arab Contractors, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Mohamed El Sayed 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 dugout25 Dec 2028
“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.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Dec 2028
Ismaïl Ouro-Agoro damages knee ligaments — 61 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 61 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.
Match16 Dec 2028
At last: Al Gaish win one
11 matches without a win, and then this, against Ghazl El Mahalla. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
The dugout18 Dec 2028
Hossam Awad: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al Gaish have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Words exchanged at Al Gaish
Emad Hamdi 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 terraces18 Dec 2028
He is 22 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.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
A performance of 8.15 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
In brief
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Squad
A row about effort at Al Gaish
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
The manager makes an example of Emad Fathi
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Dec 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ismaïl Ouro-Agoro
78 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Gaish lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match2 Dec 2028
The wait goes on for Al Gaish
10 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market4 Dec 2028
Yehia Mostafa 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.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
Ahmed Abbas: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al Gaish have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ibrahim Al-Dawoud has just signed for Al Gaish, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Emad Hamdi 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.
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Khaled Aboziada has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Al Gaish have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Match2 Dec 2028
Al Gaish cannot find the net
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Player ratings4 Dec 2028
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Nov 2028
102 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al Gaish lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match11 Nov 2028
The wait goes on for Al Gaish
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al Gaish may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Emad Hamdi 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.
Match11 Nov 2028
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Match11 Nov 2028
Al Gaish leaking at the back
4 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
Karim Tarek 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.
The dugout13 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 1‑3 Walid Kahraba left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad13 Nov 2028
A row about effort at Al Gaish
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed El Sayed was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout23 Oct 2028
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad23 Oct 2028
Words exchanged at Al Gaish
Emad Hamdi 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.
Match21 Oct 2028
El Masry left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mohamed Refat, and the manager let it.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Mohamed El Sayed 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.
Looking ahead23 Oct 2028
Haras El Hodoud next, and one man in the Al Gaish dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market23 Oct 2028
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ibrahim Salah has his answer from Al Gaish; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market2 Oct 2028
“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 Al Gaish, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings2 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad2 Oct 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ismaïl Ouro-Agoro commits to Al Gaish for another 2 years.
Market2 Oct 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al Gaish they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad2 Oct 2028
A falling-out at Al Gaish
Emad Hamdi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match30 Sep 2028
It finished 3‑2, and it was Mahmoud Abou-Gouda’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Al Gaish.
The terraces2 Oct 2028
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.
Player ratings2 Oct 2028
Marked 8.61 — 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.
Squad2 Oct 2028
“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; Al Gaish are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Al Gaish training over how hard people work
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Looking ahead
Al Gaish take on the side everybody is chasing
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Aug 2028
At 22 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.
Squad14 Aug 2028
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.
Squad14 Aug 2028
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 5 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Ismaïl Ouro-Agoro 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 targets14 Aug 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Northampton Town have kept their man, and Al Gaish go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout14 Aug 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ahmed Menshawi, and the manager let it.
Transfer targets14 Aug 2028
Al Gaish have made the call to Südtirol. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Market14 Aug 2028
Al Gaish bring in an old head
Ahmed El Agouz is 35 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
The dugout14 Aug 2028
Camacho knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Al Gaish, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout17 Apr 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al Gaish may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad17 Apr 2028
A falling-out at Al Gaish
Karim Tarek 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
A move Ibrahim Salah would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ibrahim Salah is living that version at Al Gaish, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Al Gaish training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed El Sayed 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.
Market17 Apr 2028
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Youssef Erraoui, and the manager let it.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
Karim Tarek knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Al Gaish, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market17 Apr 2028
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Mahmoud Talaat has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Al Gaish.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Feb 2028
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.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Al Gaish close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 3 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Karim Tarek 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 dugout7 Feb 2028
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Match5 Feb 2028
0‑2 to Zamalek, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad7 Feb 2028
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.
The dugout7 Feb 2028
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout7 Feb 2028
Camacho left out for the big one
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Camacho will call it something else in private.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.