6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Arab Contractors has to find a result from somewhere.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mohamed Antar and Arab Contractors agree another 2 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Chukwudi Ekeocha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout7 Apr 2031
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 1‑2 Trezeguet Gabr left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
Ahmed Ouled Behi 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Chukwudi Ekeocha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.11. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Arab Contractors.
The dugout17 Mar 2031
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 1‑2 Trezeguet Gabr left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
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.
0‑1 to Ittihad, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout18 Nov 2030
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Trezeguet Gabr to a room that had heard them before.
Squad18 Nov 2030
Momen Awad 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.
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 Mohamed Zaalouk is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Al Ahly in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Masr El Makasa waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Arab Contractors is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Arab Contractors, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Arab Contractors have done the hard part with MTK Budapest, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Ahmed Ouled Behi 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.
Arab Contractors asked and Lokomotiva Zagreb said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Chukwudi Ekeocha 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.
Oleksandriya 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.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Arab Contractors scored in the 92th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
“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 Arab Contractors, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Arab Contractors is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arab Contractors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Mohamed Refat 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Mohamed Zaalouk at his very best
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mohamed Refat will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Arab Contractors the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arab Contractors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.09. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Arab Contractors.
Squad18 Feb 2030
Mohamed Hamed 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Arab Contractors told Mohamed Khalifa something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Trezeguet Gabr on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.