There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.48 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
$16.0K was the most the club would pay and El Masry were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Suraju Lawal 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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Aswan tried to reorganise, Ittihad did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Marked 8.22. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Ittihad.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Mahmoud Dunga 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.
8.05. 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 deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 16 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ittihad can pretend not to have heard.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $17.1K — a club that wants Ziad Farag enough to be asked twice.
Haras El Hodoud wanted more than $33.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Isaac Saviour 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.
12 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Mahmoud Dunga is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“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 Ittihad, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything was agreed with Zamalek and then the doctor spoke. Ittihad have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $34.1K — a club that wants Mahmoud El Badry enough to be asked twice.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
$33.0K on the table at Haras El Hodoud. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$13.0K on the table at El Masry. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Mohamed Tony 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.
Police Union will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Ittihad were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Afsha provided it, and the 8.40 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 Ittihad can pretend not to have heard.
Everything agreed with Frosinone, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Ittihad had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at SuperSport United, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The offer went to Zamalek 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.69 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: SuperSport United keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Ittihad asked and Platinum Stars said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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 name of Islam Samir has come up in conversations Ittihad were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Universitatea Craiova paid $4.1M and Ittihad took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Mohamed Tony 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.
Add another name to the list: Arab Contractors have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Osama Ahmed. The answer from Ittihad has not changed — yet.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Walid Hegazi 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Salah 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mahmoud Dunga 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.” Moamen Sherif and Ittihad agree another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
10 new faces, and Ittihad are still learning each other
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.
The offer from Hapoel Beer Sheva for John Okoye Ebuka 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Babatunde Bright is living that version at Ittihad, and it tends to show in the first month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. SuperSport United have kept their man, and Ittihad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Mohamed Tony 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.
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.