El Dakhleya 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. Mabululu provided it, and the 8.92 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
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.
Anthony Okachi 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 Giovanni was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Ittihad has been clear about where Youssef Nader stands, which is more than many ever get.
Nobody at Ittihad 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.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Mabululu will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Ittihad escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 15 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Position 3, 38 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ittihad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mahmoud Dunga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.18 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giovanni 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.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.31 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giovanni 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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mabululu. 1‑0 against Ghazl El Mahalla, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
2 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.
13 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Match21 Nov 2026
Mabululu wins it after the whistle should have gone
93 minutes played. Mabululu found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and ENPPI went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Two goals and a mark of 8.90 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mahmoud Dunga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
In brief
Player ratingsAfsha was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Words at Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giovanni 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.
Youssef Nader 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against ENPPI in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Isaac Saviour has written the date down.
11 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giovanni 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.
Anthony Okachi 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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ittihad, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Bassem Aboutrika chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 10 matches without defeat is a foundation Ittihad did not have in the autumn.
Squad2 Nov 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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mabululu. 1‑0 against Military Production, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Marked 7.79. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad2 Nov 2026
5 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Bassem Aboutrika on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Smouha; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Squad26 Oct 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.
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.
8 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.12 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Mohamed Tony 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 Isaac Saviour was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Abdallah Fawzi is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Amr Saleh’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Ittihad needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Suraju Lawal trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
7 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Successful dribbles: 30. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match3 Oct 2026
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Ittihad. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Squad5 Oct 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.
50 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
Marked 8.30 — 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.
Youssef Nader and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Oct 2026
14 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mabululu provided it, and the 8.83 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
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.
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.
Squad28 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.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Mabululu 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 Mahmoud Dunga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Haras El Hodoud next, and one man in the Ittihad dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Ittihad has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
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.