Shehata dislikes me, says Mido

Egypt coach Hassan Shehata overlooks Mido because he 'does not like him', the West Ham striker believes.<br>

كتب : Hatem Maher

السبت، 06 مارس 2010 - 00:33
حسن شحاتة احمد حسام (ميدو)
Egypt coach Hassan Shehata overlooks Mido because he 'does not like him', the West Ham striker believes.

Mido was infuriated by Shehata's decision to leave him out of Egypt's squad for the African Cup of Nations despite including him in the provisional roster.

He said he was mistreated by the technical staff, who rebuffed reports suggesting that he was omitted for personal reasons.

At that time, Mido hardly mentioned Shehata's name when criticizing the decision to overlook him, using the phrase 'technical staff' instead.

He has now chosen to take a direct swipe at the 60-year-old coach, who led Egypt to an unprecedented third consecutive Nations Cup title in Angola in January.

"The guy just doesn't like me," Mido was quoted as saying by English paper the Daily Mail.

During the interview, Mido, who spent the first half of the season on loan at Zamalek before joining West Ham in the January transfer window, defended his reputation of being a troublemaker.

He reiterated that he had no choice but to grasp the chance to develop his career: "When you're at Gent and you get an opportunity to go to Ajax, you go. When you're at Marseille and you can go to Roma, you go."

But Mido soon reopened talks about managerial aspects and indirectly pointed the finger at Shehata and Ronald Koeman, who fell out with him at Ajax Amsterdam in the early 2000s, for not having 'enough character' to deal with their players.

Enough Character

"I would love to be a manager. It's a difficult job. I feel sorry for them to be honest," the 27-year-old, who last played with Egypt in a World Cup qualifier against Zambia in March 2009, said.

"It's a lot of pressure, a lot of ups and downs. As a coach you take full responsibility for everything. You need to have a big character.

"The first thing I would do is be honest to players. I would say exactly what I think. I won't cheat players.

"I won't tell them things just to get them to join my team. I would have the guts to talk to a player if he came to my office and tell him why he's not playing.

"I've worked with managers who didn't have enough character to do this."

Mido, who was involved in an infamous touchline row with Shehata in the 2006 Nations Cup, recently admitted that he is unlikely to be called up to Egypt's squad as long as the highly-regarded tactician is in charge.

With Ittihad forward Geddo grabbing headlines after scoring five goals to finish as the Nations Cup top scorer, it seems highly unlikely that Shehata will count on Mido.