\n
\nFootball is cruel at times. On Monday, just prior to the final game of the Egyptian Premier League season, Ricardo Soares was asked whether it would be his last as head coach of Al-Ahly.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWhy would it be? It\u2019s the last game of this season,\u201d he said. \u201cBut now we prepare for the next.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nOn Wednesday the Portuguese tactician was fired. He had been in the job for just two months.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThe club would like to thank Soares and his assistants for their service and we wish them all the best in the future,\u201d Al-Ahly said in a statement. And that was that.<\/p>\n
\nSoares was appointed in June and knew as the season came to an end, that his job was under threat. \u201cI am proud of the time I spent with Al-Ahly so far, I accepted playing youth-team players and I know that the club doesn\u2019t tolerate disappointing results.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nIt is certainly true that the most successful club in Egypt and Africa has a low threshold for what it considers to be disappointing results. Pitso Mosimane knows all about that. He was appointed in September 2020 and delivered two African Champions League titles, to take the club\u2019s tally to 10. He also made the final in May though the Red Giants lost to Morocco\u2019s Wydad AC. Even with such success, the South African had to deal with plenty of criticism from former players.<\/p>\n
\nSuch continental commitments made it hard for Al-Ahly to challenge at home. In 2021, they finished four points behind bitter rivals Zamalek and by the time Mosimane left in May, Al-Ahly were in third with Zamalek again leading and Pyramids in second. Bringing in Soares was a last-ditch attempt to get back into the top two.<\/p>\n
\nUnder Soares, the 10-time African champions won just seven of their 14 league games, not terrible but not good enough for a team such as Al-Ahly as they finished third, seven points behind Zamalek. It was the first time in 30 years that the team had not ended the season in the top two.<\/p>\n
\nThat Al-Ahly had been busy in Africa and the FIFA Club World Cup earlier that year, and could have been feeling the effects of a long season, had not spared Mosimane from criticism and was certainly not something that would help Soares.<\/p>\n
\nThere were plenty of excuses: Injuries to players such as Mohamed Sherif, Amr Solaya, Akram Tewfik and Hussein Al-Shehat. Others were obviously tired and Soares used a number of young players as the games came thick and fast which didn\u2019t help results. It was not only club commitments but Al-Ahly supply several players to the national team that made the final of the African Cup of Nations in January and February, and World Cup qualification in March.<\/p>\n
\nAn early loss to title rivals Pyramids was a major setback and Soares never really recovered. It was a difficult situation for a man who had never worked outside Portugal before. In early August, there were signs of frustration after a 0-0 draw with Pharco.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI wanted to rest Ali Maaloul and Hossam Hassan but I had to start them, Mahmoud Wahid didn\u2019t feel fit to start and Hossam is our only fit striker,\u201d Soares said. \u201cLosing points affects the players\u2019 confidence, and injuries are never good for us. I am here to defend the players, we play in difficult circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nAs well as fatigue and injuries, there were complaints about decisions from officials. \u201c(S)tandards must be set for refereeing controversies,\u201d the 47-year-old added. \u201cLast game, the Contractors player was inside the box before the penalty kick was taken and the referee didn\u2019t intervene. Today the referee ruled out our goal after a long VAR check, while last game it only took VAR 20 seconds to decide that our goal was offside.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nThe pressure continued. After a victory over ENPPI on Aug. 24, Soares refused to answer questions in the press conference. \u201cI apologize for not wanting to answer any questions at the moment,\u201d Soares said. \u201cWe played a game every three days and almost every senior player is not here because of many injuries. I don\u2019t want to make excuses, but in normal circumstances, Al-Ahly can win everything next season.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nBut they were seen as excuses.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI believe (the) Al-Ahly board explained the situation to Soares before he came to Egypt, that\u2019s why he\u2019s responsible for the results,\u201d club legend Ahmed Belal said in early August. \u201cBoth the coach and the players are responsible for the recent setbacks, excuses are not accepted.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nBy that time, there were already rumors of who would replace Soares once the season ended. Carlos Queiroz had left the Egyptian national team just months before and was available. He knew some of the players and had, unlike Soares, vast international experience. Vahid Halilhodzic had been fired by Morocco in August and was also linked.<\/p>\n
\nSuch hard-bitten coaches may be necessary. Coaching Al-Ahly means challenging for league and African titles but as well as the chance for glory, it also comes with a lot of pressure, stress and criticism. Ricardo Soares knows that after just two months in the job, and soon it will be somebody else in one of the hottest seats in world football.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Football is cruel at times. On Monday, just prior to the final game of the Egyptian…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sport"],"yoast_head":"\n
Eddie Howe admits tough transfer deadline day as Newcastle stock rises in Premier League battle - Gulf Times | News by the minute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2155226\/sport\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Eddie Howe admits tough transfer deadline day as Newcastle stock rises in Premier League battle\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gulf News| UAE's Largest News aggregator site\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2155226\/sport\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gulf Times | News by the minute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100084981843786\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-09-02T19:20:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/gulftimesuae-logo.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"452\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"111\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"gulftimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Gulftimesuae\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Gulftimesuae\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"gulftimes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Eddie Howe admits tough transfer deadline day as Newcastle stock rises in Premier League battle - Gulf Times | News by the minute","description":"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2155226\/sport","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Eddie Howe admits tough transfer deadline day as Newcastle stock rises in Premier League battle","og_description":"Gulf News| UAE's Largest News aggregator site","og_url":"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2155226\/sport","og_site_name":"Gulf Times | News by the minute","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100084981843786","article_published_time":"2022-09-02T19:20:03+00:00","og_image":[{"width":452,"height":111,"url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/gulftimesuae-logo.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"gulftimes","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Gulftimesuae","twitter_site":"@Gulftimesuae","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"gulftimes","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2155226\/sport#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=2671"},"author":{"name":"gulftimes","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/person\/4c5b0f90aae48bb43165ee6e39ddc977"},"headline":"Eddie Howe admits tough transfer deadline day as Newcastle stock rises in Premier League battle","datePublished":"2022-09-02T19:20:03+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=2671"},"wordCount":896,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Sport"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2155226\/sport#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=2671","url":"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2155226\/sport","name":"Eddie Howe admits tough transfer deadline day as Newcastle stock rises in Premier League battle - Gulf Times | News by the minute","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-09-02T19:20:03+00:00","description":"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2155226\/sport#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2155226\/sport"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2155226\/sport#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Eddie Howe admits tough transfer deadline day as Newcastle stock rises in Premier League battle"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#website","url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/","name":"Gulf Times | News by the minute","description":"Largest News Aggregator in the Gulf","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#organization"},"alternateName":"Gulf News Aggregator","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#organization","name":"Gulf Times","url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"","contentUrl":"","caption":"Gulf Times"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100084981843786","https:\/\/x.com\/Gulftimesuae"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/person\/4c5b0f90aae48bb43165ee6e39ddc977","name":"gulftimes","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8f9c2e07a9cd7e7e7c302c8c7ce8d5e0865a0bbcc732793d6e761588fd10b03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8f9c2e07a9cd7e7e7c302c8c7ce8d5e0865a0bbcc732793d6e761588fd10b03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8f9c2e07a9cd7e7e7c302c8c7ce8d5e0865a0bbcc732793d6e761588fd10b03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"gulftimes"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/gulftimes.ae"],"url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2671\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}