Ahly's president Mahmoud Taher (Al-Ahram)
Ahly President Mahmoud Taher believes the Cairo giants will be able to recover and return back to past glories soon, insisting that the club's new coach has not yet been chosen.
On Monday night, Ahly appointed Abdel Aziz Abdel–Shafy ‘Zizo’, one of the club icons, as caretaker coach after sacking Fathi Mabourk following the team’s recent poor results.
"Any team in the world could stumble at any point, but we will be able to recover soon," Taher told reporters after the urgent board meeting held during the early hours of Tuesday.
"We have sealed perfect deals during the summer transfer market and we should get the benefits now," he added.
Mabrouk, who succeded Juan Carlos Garrido last May after the Spanish coach was sacked, has come under fire following Ahly's exit from the Confederation Cup semis.
The Reds slumped to a stunning 4-3 home defeat by South Africa's Orlando Pirates on Sunday to wave goodbye to the competition they won last season with a 5-3 aggregate defeat.
Under Mabrouk, Ahly failed to win a major trophy for the first time since 2004. They lost both the Egyptian Premier League and the Egypt Cup to archrivals Zamalek.
New coach after the Super Cup
Chief of Ahly's youth sector, Zizo, will be in charge of Ahly until the derby match against archrivals Zamalek in the Super Cup. The match will be played on 15 October in the United Arab Emirates.
"The name of the new coach has not been decided yet. The announcement will be made after the Super Cup match," explained President Taher.
Local reports said on Monday that Portuguese coach Jose Vitor dos Santos Peseiro is reportedly in the running for the vacant Ahly job but no deal is in place yet.
Peseiro, who started his coaching career in 1992, was one of Carlos Queiroz’s assistant coaches at Real Madrid and was part of Manchester United's backroom staff.
Peseiro is not the only candidate for the Ahly job as the names of German coach Thomas Schaaf, former Werder Bremen coach and Marcos Bakita are also on the table.
Veteran Portuguese coach Manuel Jose Da Silva, who guided Ahly to various trophies before, also emerged as a prominent candidate.
"It isn't true that I had a meeting with Peseiro in London. All the names discussed in Egyptian media are just rumours. Until now we are not talking about certain names," Mahmoud Taher explained.
"I promise the fans a new coach who will be able to meet their hopes and aspirations," the Ahly chairman concluded.
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