Marked for Mostafa Warda
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Aug 2027
Yasser El Shenawy and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
Masr El Makasa offered $330.0K; Aswan said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
The offer went to Ghazl El Mahalla this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Walid Ghaly 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
At 29 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Karim El Hadary and Masr El Makasa agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
Salah El Wensh has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Masr El Makasa will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market9 Aug 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Walid Ghaly’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market9 Aug 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Masr El Makasa, another week without a signature from Emad Hegazi.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Jul 2027
Yasser El Shenawy 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Bassem Tarek 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.
The dugout26 Jul 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 51. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market8 Mar 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Bassem Tarek commits to Masr El Makasa for another 3 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
A season average of 7.22 with 17 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Yasser El Shenawy 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Masr El Makasa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Walid Ghaly 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.
The terraces8 Mar 2027
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Riyaaz Koopstadt, and the manager let it.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Player ratings
A defender's afternoon for Walid Ghaly
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The dugout
Amir Hegazy gets picked when it counts
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 31. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market8 Feb 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.
Match6 Feb 2027
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Masr El Makasa have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Amr Zizo 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Abdallah Tarek
15 goals and a season average of 7.20 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Walid Ghaly was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces8 Feb 2027
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match6 Feb 2027
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 36. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Bassem Tarek 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 targets31 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al Ahly have kept their man, and Masr El Makasa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.73 on the card, and the Masr El Makasa support went home talking about one name.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mahmoud Zaki and Masr El Makasa agree another 3 years.
Match29 Aug 2026
A 1‑1 draw with El Dakhleya leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Ali Tarek was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Masr El Makasa dressing room was either.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with River Plate, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Walid Ghaly commits to Masr El Makasa for another 5 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Yasser El Shenawy 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
Wadi Degla wanted more than $140.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Walid Ghaly was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
“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.
Market10 Aug 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Mostafa Warda has his answer from Masr El Makasa; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
Walid Ghaly knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Walid Ghaly trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.