Marked for Ibrahim Ghaly
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Aug 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mohamed Abdelmoumene Kadri is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Ammar El Orfi 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.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Hamza Yacoub has improved at 25, 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.
Boardroom14 Aug 2028
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Franco Gozzerino has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means MC El Bayadh have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Words at MC El Bayadh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Naledi Hlongwane 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.
Market14 Aug 2028
He is 16, and nobody at MC El Bayadh signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 47. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ahmed Gaber is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Mohamed Abdelaati 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Wadi Degla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danijel Miškić 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.
Match4 Sep 2027
A 1‑0 win over Military Production, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad6 Sep 2027
At 27 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.
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
Marked 7.57 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Wadi Degla had the best player on the pitch.
Market6 Sep 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Hesham Mohamed has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Wadi Degla.
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
Defensive actions: 8. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Aug 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ibrahim Ghaly
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Wadi Degla lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad2 Aug 2027
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.
Market2 Aug 2027
Everyone has stopped pretending: Ismaily will make the call about Mahmoud Diasty this week. Wadi Degla have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Jul 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ibrahim Ghaly
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Wadi Degla lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market26 Jul 2027
The phone has started ringing about Mahmoud Diasty again, and this time the name on the line is Ismaily. Wadi Degla are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Mohamed Abdelaati 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.