Former Al Ahly head coach Pitso Mosimane says the issues plaguing the Egyptian giants are the bizarre scheduling in the pursuit of competing across all fronts.
Mosimane walked away from the Red Devils’ job last month citing he took the team as far as he could with three consecutive CAF Champions League finals, two triumphs, two CAF Super Cup titles, and two FIFA Club World Cup bronze medals and the Egypt Cup.
Despite his success in one of the most demanding travelling schedules in world football, he received plenty of criticism amongst media and former players – which club president Mahmoud El-Khatib even suggested may have been a campaign to force him out.
Results have not improved in the Egyptian Premier League with his successor Ricardo Soares, with the Cairo giants not taking advantage of their games in hand against reigning champions Zamalek and are likely to finish in third place behind Pyramids.
Competing in the Champions League, Club World Cup, several of their key players featuring in the FIFA Arab Cup, and TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations, have all played a major role in an uphill task for the club to maintain their levels of performance.
“I know what’s the problem with Al Ahly, you know… Games in hand? Problems. So if the league hasn’t finished in Egypt, last years league and they just finished the cup of last year, it’s like the Nedbank [Cup] of last year finishing now,” Mosimane said when speaking about the issues the Africa Super League may cause for big clubs.
“They just finished it and there’s still the [Egypt Cup] of this year, they’ve still not finished it – so exciting times… and that’s always the problem for me. I always feel administrators or people who put programs [together], they don’t speak to the technicians.
“You must speak to the technicians. You can’t talk about the car who needs to move like this or like that but you don’t talk about the guy who services the car or the driver, you know what I’m trying to say? But we have to be positive about good things and don’t shoot everything down.”
Ahly finished outside the top two spots in the league for the first time in three decades despite finishing off the campaign with a 4-0 win over Ceramica Cleopatra.
