77 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Wadi Degla will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
There were 89 minutes on the clock and Arab Contractors had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Wadi Degla did not stop to explain themselves.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A brace, and Ahmed Farouk takes the afternoon — 8.52
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ahmed Farouk provided it, and the 8.52 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
A 2‑1 win over Arab Contractors, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Youssef Oya has his answer from Wadi Degla; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Ahmed Aboutrika could afford to be generous.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Hesham Mohamed
144 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.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Wadi Degla close the window on a squad of their own making
14 in and 0 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.
Ibrahim El Bahnasi 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 have made the call to Flamengo. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Wadi Degla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kano 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.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Petrojet in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
In brief
MarketThe window shut and Youssef Oya is still in the building
Mees Kaandorp 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Franck Boli 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.
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.
Al Ahly have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Ahmed Aboutrika kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
$1.3M on the table at Masr El Makasa. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.3M — a club that wants Emad Soliman enough to be asked twice.
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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Ahmed Aboutrika could afford to be generous.
Nothing about this will be in a press release. A plan went upstairs, came back rejected, and the version of the club that would have existed in three years' time just quietly stopped being possible.
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.