From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match15 Sep 2027
A 1-0 win over Military Production, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Mohamed Tarek: 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.” Police Union have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad20 Sep 2027
“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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Leonardo Morales commits to Police Union for another 4 years.
Match18 Sep 2027
It finished 2-2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad20 Sep 2027
A first senior shirt for Walid Hassan
Every debut is a small story about the future: Walid Hassan, 18 years old, off the academy pitches and into the first team. The parents in the stand will keep the programme.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market23 Aug 2027
The bid was some way short and Police Union did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market23 Aug 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Police Union can pretend not to have heard.
Match21 Aug 2027
Beaten 2-3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad23 Aug 2027
“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 terraces23 Aug 2027
Everybody has an opinion about Mahmoud Wahid
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Squad23 Aug 2027
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market16 Aug 2027
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Market16 Aug 2027
The shirt still fits. Ahmed Ghaly is back at Police Union, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Market16 Aug 2027
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
Police Union release $92.0K for the manager
The board have put money on the table rather than an encouraging word. What happens to it now is somebody else's problem, and somebody else's job.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Walid Ouabdi asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Jun 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
A new face in his position, and Alexander Jakobsen suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Police Union have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 May 2027
“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.
Squad3 May 2027
“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.
Market3 May 2027
“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.
Boardroom3 May 2027
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Squad3 May 2027
The captaincy has been taken off Silas Nwankwo. Police Union will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
Squad3 May 2027
It is a strip of cloth and it decides nothing on a Saturday. It still tells the dressing room exactly whose opinion the manager values, which is the whole point of it.