Marked for Guy Félix Lima
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom17 Jul 2028
Pressure builds in the Aswan boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Seidu Basit 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 Aswan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Jul 2028
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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Adham Hamed 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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
A row about effort at Aswan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mahmoud Diasty was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
Door shut on Jimmy
Aswan asked and AE Kition said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout17 Jul 2028
The manager makes an example of Islam Gamal
“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.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
Zamalek 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 dugout17 Jul 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom22 May 2028
Pressure builds in the Aswan boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad22 May 2028
Seidu Basit 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 Aswan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 May 2028
A row about effort at Aswan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Chisom Chikatara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout22 May 2028
Steve Hoffman gets picked when it counts
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 Steve Hoffman is on it.
The dugout22 May 2028
El Limby 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 dugout22 May 2028
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Aswan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout22 May 2028
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Squad22 May 2028
Another 12 days on the injury, and a return date that has now been moved more than once. The medical staff have stopped giving one.
Squad22 May 2028
Questions about Guy Félix Lima on the training pitch
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Mar 2028
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Aswan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market13 Mar 2028
Mostafa Anani 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 Aswan can pretend not to have heard.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words exchanged at Aswan
Seidu Basit 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Mahmoud Diasty 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.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout13 Mar 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.
Match11 Mar 2028
A bad afternoon for Aswan against Ismaily
0‑1 to Ismaily, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad13 Mar 2028
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Aswan can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout13 Mar 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at Aswan
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Aswan is running low.
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
Crisis meeting at Aswan
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Squad3 Jan 2028
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market3 Jan 2028
Mostafa Anani 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 Aswan can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
Chisom Chikatara: 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.” Aswan have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Tempers go at Aswan
Seidu Basit 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
A row about effort at Aswan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Steve Hoffman was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ahmed Hamoudi, and the manager let it.