“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Al-Ittihad can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Ittihad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Dion Lopy was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Al-Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Faisal Al-Ghamdi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Al-Faisaly next, and one man in the Al-Ittihad dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Al-Ittihad have no good answer.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Al-Ittihad are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Al-Hilal left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Al-Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Faisal Al-Ghamdi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Roger Fernandes is the division's best young player this month
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Al-Ittihad will try very hard not to make too much of it.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Abdulelah Hawsawi and Al-Ittihad agree another 3 years.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Ittihad know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Roger Fernandes did not need any: 8.34, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Al-Ittihad will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Al-Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Faisal Al-Ghamdi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 7.90, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Al-Ittihad, and it is not being withdrawn.
Two goals and a mark of 8.48 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Position 3, 17 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Dion Lopy scored, was marked 7.84, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Roger Fernandes has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Dion Lopy and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Yasser Al-Sheikh on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Paulo Oliveira's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Al-Ittihad can pretend not to have heard.
Real Sociedad pay $18.8M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Al-Ittihad have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Al-Ittihad close the window on a squad of their own making
16 in and 28 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Danilo Pereira was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Ittihad can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Al-Ittihad asked and Al-Qadisiyah said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I watch every Al-Ittihad game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al-Jeel runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Al-Wehda will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Al-Ittihad were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Roger Fernandes did not need any: 7.84, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The offer from Al-Fateh for Farhah Al-Shamrani was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Hajer paid $220.0K and Al-Ittihad took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Danilo Pereira and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Ettifaq have kept their man, and Al-Ittihad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Hassan Al-Qahtani has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Abdullah Al-Sultan has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Yasser Al-Shehri has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Porto had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Al-Ittihad, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al-Ittihad people have started saying his name in the past tense.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.30, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Athletic Bilbao is saying, and nobody at Al-Ittihad is enjoying the guessing.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Jason was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The phone has started ringing about Farhah Al-Shamrani again, and this time the name on the line is Al-Nahda. Al-Ittihad are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Al-Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Faisal Al-Ghamdi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Athletic Bilbao have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Position 2, 63 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Al-Ittihad, and it is not being withdrawn.
Al-Ittihad asked and Al-Ettifaq said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Farhah Al-Shamrani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Ittihad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Dion Lopy was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
17 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Add another name to the list: Al-Nassr have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mohammed Al-Absi. The answer from Al-Ittihad has not changed — yet.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Al-Ittihad hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Ittihad can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Ahli have kept their man, and Al-Ittihad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Predrag Rajković wants continental football; whether Al-Ittihad can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The fee is $860.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Al-Fayha drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
A club from his own country has asked the question, and he has never pretended he did not want to be asked. Al-Ittihad have a conversation ahead of them that they will not win with money.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Dion Lopy
The dugoutRichard Ríos is still being punished for one mistake
The deal with Al-Fayha is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Al-Shabab paid $3.2M and Al-Ittihad took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Abdulelah Al-Malki is a Al-Ittihad player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 4 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Ittihad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 2, 63 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Al-Ittihad are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Dion Lopy was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Al-Ittihad told Roger Fernandes something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“I watch every Al-Ittihad game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Hajer runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Ittihad know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Hamed Al-Ghamdi is on it.
The manager has not finished forgetting Richard Ríos's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
9 clean sheets from 25 appearances at Al-Shoulla. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until George Ilenikhena signs something — a contract at Al-Ittihad or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Sharpest man there all week, by every account. It is the quietest line on this page and it usually runs the week before somebody’s run in the side begins.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Ittihad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Al-Ittihad heard it as anything else.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Richard Ríos's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
25 appearances at Al-Shoulla and the goals have stopped going in. Al-Ittihad lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Faisal Al-Ghamdi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Abdulaziz Al-Shammari is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Ittihad can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Dion Lopy was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Al-Ittihad can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Jan-Carlo Simić is on it.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Helsingborg had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Ittihad can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
At 20 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Al-Ittihad will try not to make too much of it.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Mohammed Barnawi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
A breach, a hearing, a week’s wages: Al-Ittihad handled it by the book and briefed nobody, which is how you can tell they mean it. The dressing room noticed both halves.
In brief
The dugoutDion Lopy asks for a word with the manager
Position 2 on 63 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
A mark of 7.62 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Al-Ittihad are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Houssem Aouar. 1‑0 against Al-Fateh, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Roger Fernandes did not need any: 8.10, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Danilo Pereira and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The name of Muhannad Al-Shanqiti has come up in conversations Al-Ittihad were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: George Ilenikhena. 2‑0 against Al-Faisaly, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Predrag Rajković is on it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Al-Ittihad have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Roger Fernandes is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Abdulrahman Hazazi has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
100 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Al-Ittihad will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Add another name to the list: Feyenoord have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Steven Bergwijn. The answer from Al-Ittihad has not changed — yet.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Ittihad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Turki Hazazi has agreed terms with Al-Orobah for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Danilo Pereira was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Abdulhadi Matari is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Ittihad can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Ittihad will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The 86th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Youssef En-Nesyri decided nobody was going anywhere. Al-Nassr had no time left to answer.
6 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Al-Ittihad hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.19, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Danilo Pereira and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Ittihad will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
A mark of 7.90 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Dion Lopy was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Faisal Al-Ghamdi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Yasser Al-Sheikh could afford to be generous.
In brief
The dugoutJan-Carlo Simić has become a man the manager trusts
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Ittihad will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Ittihad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Stephane Keller has agreed terms with Al-Hilal for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Faisal Al-Ghamdi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.30 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
In brief
Player ratingsYoussef En-Nesyri was on a different afternoon to everybody else
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Ittihad will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Ittihad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
7.94, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Al-Ittihad and Al-Faisaly, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Dion Lopy was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Ittihad will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.65 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Al-Ittihad heard it as anything else.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Ittihad will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Steven Bergwijn provided it, and the 8.55 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Roger Fernandes has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Faisal Al-Ghamdi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8.03. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Al-Ittihad told Dion Lopy something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
Player ratingsHoussem Aouar beats them one at a time
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Ittihad will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Al-Khaleej, and it could have been more.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Jan-Carlo Simić, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.15
A mark of 8.15 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.90 for the rest of it.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mohammed Barnawi is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Houssem Aouar was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.20. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Ittihad will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Two goals and a mark of 8.51 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Jan-Carlo Simić has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
In brief
BoardroomWages swallow 130% of the Al-Ittihad income
SquadWords at Al-Ittihad training over how hard people work
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Mukhtar Ali