Marked for Guy Félix Lima
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.
Back issues
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
“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 Ararat, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market10 Aug 2026
Van come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Ararat did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Ararat
Umut Dilek 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Mkhitar Khachatryan has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Aram Bayramyan has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.