A brace, and Shokry Naguib takes the afternoon — 8.88
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Shokry Naguib provided it, and the 8.88 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.85 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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.
Hussein Faisal 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Arab Contractors has been clear about where Mohamed El Araby stands, which is more than many ever get.
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 dugout15 Feb 2027
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Amr Ghaly to a room that had heard them before.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
Mohamed Fawzi is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Chances created: 9. Nothing on the scoresheet and everything in the match: the pass before the pass, over and over, until the defence stopped guessing right.
Nobody at Arab Contractors 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Mamelodi Sundowns is saying, and nobody at Arab Contractors is enjoying the guessing.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mahmoud Abou-Gouda and Arab Contractors agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Arab Contractors asked and Krasnodar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
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 dugout8 Feb 2027
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 Amr Ghaly to a room that had heard them before.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Charles Bassey signs something — a contract at Arab Contractors or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A brace, and Shokry Naguib takes the afternoon — 8.51
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Shokry Naguib provided it, and the 8.51 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Arab Contractors can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Zamalek for Louay Wael was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Arab Contractors until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Arab Contractors had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Mamelodi Sundowns, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al Ahly have kept their man, and Arab Contractors go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Arab Contractors have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Arab Contractors have done the hard part with Mamelodi Sundowns, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Grêmio is saying, and nobody at Arab Contractors is enjoying the guessing.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Hussein Faisal. 1‑0 against El Masry, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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 deal with Mamelodi Sundowns is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Hussein Faisal 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 Mohamed Adel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Amr Ghaly kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Arab Contractors can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Arab Contractors have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Arab Contractors had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Atlético Mineiro, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Hussein Faisal 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Shokry Naguib and Arab Contractors agree another 3 years.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mamelodi Sundowns have kept their man, and Arab Contractors go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 33 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Arab Contractors is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
“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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Two goals and a mark of 9.02 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.31 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Shokry Naguib. 2‑1 against Police Union, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 39 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Arab Contractors know it.
Atlético Mineiro 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.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Pedro Balotelli is in the works
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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Marked 8.12 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Mohamed Hamed 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Islam Gaber was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
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 2‑3 defeat, delivered by Amr Ghaly to a room that had heard them before.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mohamed El Araby trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
20 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Arab Contractors lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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 had been thinking. Cristian Lucca 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 dugout14 Dec 2026
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 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Amr Ghaly to a room that had heard them before.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Arab Contractors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Arab Contractors can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Arab Contractors have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mahmoud Abou-Gouda and Arab Contractors agree another 3 years.
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Arab Contractors have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
The words a physio says slowly. 36 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.96, and 2 involvements.
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.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Adel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
44 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Arab Contractors lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Abdulrahman Muniru will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Arab Contractors escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.37 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Hussein Faisal 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.
8.63. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
In brief
SquadCristian Lucca falls out with a teammate over standards
Player ratingsHussein Faisal was on a different afternoon to everybody else
52 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Arab Contractors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Hussein Faisal 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Adel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ghazl El Mahalla next, and one man in the Arab Contractors dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Arab Contractors would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Arab Contractors. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
59 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Arab Contractors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Adel 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 dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Amr Ghaly kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
66 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Arab Contractors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristian Lucca 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 dugout2 Nov 2026
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 0‑2 Amr Ghaly left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
75 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Arab Contractors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Military Production spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Mohamed Hamed 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Adel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Amr Ghaly kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
83 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Arab Contractors lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
Hussein Faisal 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Shokry Naguib. 2‑1 against Smouha, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Adel 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.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Amr Ghaly kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
91 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Arab Contractors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Omar El Wahsh and Arab Contractors agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Charles Bassey 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Smouha in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Arab Contractors, and both men came out saying it was fine.
98 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Arab Contractors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 38 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Arab Contractors is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
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 Amr Ghaly left the room before anybody could ask which.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nader Hesham, and the manager let it.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Fábio Alves
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
105 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Arab Contractors lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Hussein Faisal 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mahmoud Abou-Gouda. 1‑0 against Ismaily, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Adel 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Fábio Alves and Arab Contractors agree another 1 years.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Amr Ghaly, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Nobody at Arab Contractors is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Wadi Degla next, and one man in the Arab Contractors dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
114 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Arab Contractors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Hussein Faisal 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.
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
121 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Arab Contractors lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Arab Contractors can pretend not to have heard.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.24 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
1 for Omar El Wahsh, marked 7.95, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Louay Wael reports back to Arab Contractors with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. El Masry have kept their man, and Arab Contractors go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
In brief
SquadWords at Arab Contractors training over how hard people work
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Joseph Ochaya
6Edition
The Arab Contractors Post
7 Sep 2026
From our football correspondentUpbeat
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Arab Contractors close the window on a squad of their own making
15 in and 2 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Arab Contractors asked and El Masry said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Arab Contractors ran out of time with Zamalek. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Adel 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Youssef Abdelhafiz has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Two goals and a mark of 9.06 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Two goals and a mark of 8.86 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.38 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $35.6K — a club that wants Abdelrahman Mano enough to be asked twice.
Arab Contractors had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Bragantino, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Arab Contractors offered $310.0K; Zamalek 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.
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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $35.6K — a club that wants Arafat Masoud enough to be asked twice.
The offer from Smouha for Joachim Ojera was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Arab Contractors asked and Santos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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 Lawal Muritala was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Arab Contractors will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Bruninho is in the works
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 1 on the scoresheet, 8.12 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
“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 offer from Zamalek for Mahmoud Daabasa was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $550.0K has been paid because Mohamed El Araby is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Arab Contractors have gone to ENPPI with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
$26.0K on the table at Ittihad. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Arab Contractors offered $36.0K; El Masry 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. ENPPI have kept their man, and Arab Contractors go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Arab Contractors have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $38.9K — a club that wants Youssef El Gohary enough to be asked twice.
$550.0K on the table at El Dakhleya. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The offer went to El Masry 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ahmed Ouled Behi and Arab Contractors agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Ahmed Ouled Behi 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ibrahim El Shenawy 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Abdulrahman Muniru has just signed for Arab Contractors, and for once the answer mattered.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Shokry Naguib and Arab Contractors agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Arab Contractors has been clear about where Joachim Ojera stands, which is more than many ever get.