How many times have we heard the phrase “Zamalek have the best group of players in Egypt”? Football pundits blamed circumstances surrounding the club for the players' dip in form, but not any more! There is no excuse for this group of players who were once mentioned for all good reasons, but now, they smartly succeeded in ruining every single achievement they have had over the past few years. Zamalek are on the verge of completing a third successive season without a single trophy after they were dumped out of the CAF Champions League and the Arab Champions League and lost any hope of competing for the league title. In my opinion, the club's poor signings over the last two years are to blame for the disastrous form produced by the Cairo giants. Zamalek's administration failed to determine the real needs to reinforce the team's squad, searching for attacking options while the defense is suffering. And when they finally began to shift their attention towards strengthening the team's backline in the off-season, they managed to sign below-par players who never dreamt of wearing the white and red jersey
Zamalek's administration failed to determine the real needs to reinforce the team's squad, searching for attacking options while the defense is suffering. Two defenders, who were not playing regularly with their teams, arrived at Zamalek: Club Africain's Tunisian player Yamen ben Zekri and Osama Hassan of Egyptian side ENPPI. Both of them failed to prove that they deserve a place in Zamalek's squad. Masri's Amr Al-Safti also joined Zamalek but couldn't get rid of the bad boy image that was attached to him since his days with the Port Said-based club, making irritating problems which prompted the technical staff to suspend him. Although I believe that French boss Henri Michel shouldn't have implemented the 4-4-2 formation with such poor players, he shouldn't be criticized too much because the players he has at his disposal aren't capable of winning any trophies. Zamalek should follow in the footsteps of their arch-rivals, Ahli, who experienced a difficult three years but managed to sign a host of stars who were capable of bringing back glory days.
