Marked for Bassem Gabr
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Jun 2035
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Petrojet have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market25 Jun 2035
“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 The request is on a desk at Petrojet, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2035
The offer went to Ittihad 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.
Squad25 Jun 2035
A row about effort at Petrojet
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rasheed Ahmed was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2035
Petrojet asked and Al Ahly said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad25 Jun 2035
Mohamed Goldy 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.
The dugout25 Jun 2035
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 Hameed Aderoju is on it.
The dugout25 Jun 2035
Bassem Gabr 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 dugout25 Jun 2035
Abdallah Gamal knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Petrojet, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match7 May 2035
Full time on the season at Petrojet
Position 15 on 25 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Match5 May 2035
4 matches without a win for Petrojet
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Petrojet are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 May 2035
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Hameed Aderoju and Petrojet agree another 3 years.
Squad7 May 2035
A row about effort at Petrojet
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rasheed Ahmed was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 May 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Petrojet this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings7 May 2035
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad7 May 2035
100 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
The dugout7 May 2035
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Mohamed El Shenawy will call it something else in private.
The dugout7 May 2035
Half-satisfied: Interim Coach on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout30 Apr 2035
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Petrojet may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings30 Apr 2035
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match28 Apr 2035
Al Gaish left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad30 Apr 2035
Hameed Aderoju 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.
Squad30 Apr 2035
Mohamed Goldy 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.
The dugout30 Apr 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Junior Mendes, and the manager let it.
The dugout30 Apr 2035
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 1‑3 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad30 Apr 2035
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Salah Zaki commits to Petrojet for another 3 years.
The dugout30 Apr 2035
Hameed Aderoju has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Petrojet 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.