Marked for Ebube Duru
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Dec 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Michael Akano
81 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CS Constantine lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad10 Dec 2035
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings10 Dec 2035
A brace, and Ouadjih Khelfaoui takes the afternoon — 8.90
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ouadjih Khelfaoui provided it, and the 8.90 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings10 Dec 2035
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad10 Dec 2035
Mokéssé Bamba 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.
Squad10 Dec 2035
Words at CS Constantine training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nassim L'Ghoul 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.
Match8 Dec 2035
A 2‑1 win over MC Oran, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings10 Dec 2035
Ninety minutes of Chinedu Nwosu at his very best
Marked 8.05. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at CS Constantine.
Market10 Dec 2035
Experience through the door at CS Constantine
Ebube Duru arrives at 36 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom5 Feb 2035
The administrators have gone from Al-Hilal
A year of somebody else signing off every invoice ends this week. The books are smaller, the squad is smaller, and for the first time since it began the club is allowed to plan.
Match3 Feb 2035
The wait goes on for Al-Hilal
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market5 Feb 2035
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market5 Feb 2035
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Hilal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad5 Feb 2035
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sergej Milinković-Savić and Al-Hilal agree another 2 years.
Squad5 Feb 2035
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Squad5 Feb 2035
Théo Hernández falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
Match3 Feb 2035
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad5 Feb 2035
Rúben Neves gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match22 Jan 2035
Al-Hilal are in real trouble now
Position 12, 15 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market22 Jan 2035
Ebube Duru hands in a written request
“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-Hilal can pretend not to have heard.
Match20 Jan 2035
No end in sight to Al-Hilal's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Hilal has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings22 Jan 2035
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.84 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad22 Jan 2035
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Squad22 Jan 2035
Théo Hernández falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
Squad22 Jan 2035
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings22 Jan 2035
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad22 Jan 2035
Théo Hernández has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Al-Hilal will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 Jan 2035
The words a physio says slowly. 26 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad8 Jan 2035
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Hilal have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market8 Jan 2035
“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-Hilal can pretend not to have heard.
Market8 Jan 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Hilal is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match6 Jan 2035
No end in sight to Al-Hilal's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Hilal has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad8 Jan 2035
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match6 Jan 2035
Al-Hilal cannot find the net
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad8 Jan 2035
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yusuf Akçiçek 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.
Match6 Jan 2035
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Dec 2034
The words a physio says slowly. 40 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings25 Dec 2034
Successful dribbles: 41. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match25 Dec 2034
Al-Hilal sink to position 12
13 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market25 Dec 2034
“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-Hilal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad25 Dec 2034
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Dec 2034
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Théo Hernández 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.
Player ratings25 Dec 2034
Marked 7.63. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad25 Dec 2034
No place for Ebube Duru on the big day
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Al-Hilal pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Market25 Dec 2034
Al-Hilal bring in an old head
Alonso Hernández is 37 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Dec 2034
The words a physio says slowly. 56 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market11 Dec 2034
“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-Hilal can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings11 Dec 2034
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.01 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market11 Dec 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Hilal is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad11 Dec 2034
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings11 Dec 2034
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad11 Dec 2034
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Théo Hernández 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.
Match9 Dec 2034
A 2‑0 win over Al-Ta'ee, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad11 Dec 2034
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Nov 2034
The words a physio says slowly. 72 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match27 Nov 2034
Al-Hilal sink to position 12
9 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market27 Nov 2034
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings27 Nov 2034
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad27 Nov 2034
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Nov 2034
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yusuf Akçiçek 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.
Squad27 Nov 2034
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Al-Hilal know it.
Match25 Nov 2034
Al-Hilal and Hajer cancel each other out
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Hajer came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Market27 Nov 2034
The clock does Davron Anvarov’s negotiating for him
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Al-Hilal could ask drops and the wages Davron Anvarov can ask rise.
In brief
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Market
The shop window has Ebube Duru in it
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Boardroom
The Al-Hilal production line keeps running
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad30 Oct 2034
The words a physio says slowly. 102 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match30 Oct 2034
Every point is an argument now for Al-Hilal
Position 13 and 4 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market30 Oct 2034
“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-Hilal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match28 Oct 2034
The wait goes on for Al-Hilal
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad30 Oct 2034
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Oct 2034
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Théo Hernández 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.
Match28 Oct 2034
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings30 Oct 2034
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad30 Oct 2034
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Oct 2034
The words a physio says slowly. 111 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match21 Oct 2034
No end in sight to Al-Hilal's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Hilal has to find a result from somewhere.
Market23 Oct 2034
“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-Hilal can pretend not to have heard.
Squad23 Oct 2034
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Squad23 Oct 2034
Théo Hernández falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
Match21 Oct 2034
0‑1 to Al-Ra'ed, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Boardroom23 Oct 2034
No signings allowed at Al-Hilal
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Squad23 Oct 2034
Ebube Duru gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings23 Oct 2034
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match2 Oct 2034
Al-Hilal are in real trouble now
Position 13, 4 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Player ratings2 Oct 2034
Successful dribbles: 31. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market2 Oct 2034
“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-Hilal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad2 Oct 2034
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Théo Hernández and Al-Hilal agree another 2 years.
Squad2 Oct 2034
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Oct 2034
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Théo Hernández 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.
Match30 Sep 2034
3 matches without a goal for Al-Hilal
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad2 Oct 2034
The manager makes an example of Davron Anvarov
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market2 Oct 2034
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Jul 2034
Nader Al-Sharari damages knee ligaments — 46 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 46 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad31 Jul 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 48 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market31 Jul 2034
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad31 Jul 2034
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Market31 Jul 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Hilal is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad31 Jul 2034
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Milad Hosseini is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Jul 2034
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nader Al-Sharari
75 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Hilal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad3 Jul 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 76 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market3 Jul 2034
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad3 Jul 2034
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Market3 Jul 2034
Only the photograph left for Munif Doshi
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Munif Doshi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Hilal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom3 Jul 2034
No signings allowed at Al-Hilal
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Boardroom3 Jul 2034
Intake day at the Al-Hilal academy
6 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
Market3 Jul 2034
Al-Hilal have made Ebube Duru available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Jun 2034
The words a physio says slowly. 22 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad5 Jun 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 104 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom5 Jun 2034
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Fahad Al-Khaibari has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market5 Jun 2034
The bid was some way short and Al-Hilal did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market5 Jun 2034
“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-Hilal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market5 Jun 2034
“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-Hilal heard it as anything else.
Boardroom5 Jun 2034
An order from above at Al-Hilal: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
Market5 Jun 2034
Only the photograph left for Adel Khadhari
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Adel Khadhari will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Hilal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad5 Jun 2034
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
In brief
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Squad
Théo Hernández falls out with a teammate over standards
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Boardroom
No signings allowed at Al-Hilal
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Boardroom
The Al-Hilal production line keeps running
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market8 May 2034
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market8 May 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Hilal is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad8 May 2034
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Squad8 May 2034
Théo Hernández falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
Boardroom8 May 2034
No signings allowed at Al-Hilal
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Squad8 May 2034
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Al-Hilal, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Apr 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market10 Apr 2034
“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-Hilal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market10 Apr 2034
Tobías Pantoja has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Hilal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad10 Apr 2034
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Apr 2034
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Théo Hernández 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.
Boardroom10 Apr 2034
Al-Hilal cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Mar 2034
A fracture rules Davron Anvarov out for 29 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Hilal will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market27 Mar 2034
“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-Hilal can pretend not to have heard.
Market27 Mar 2034
Only the photograph left for Adel Khadhari
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Adel Khadhari will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Hilal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad27 Mar 2034
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Mar 2034
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Théo Hernández 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.
Squad27 Mar 2034
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Al-Hilal know it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Mar 2034
A knee injury of the worst kind for Yahaya Ibrahim
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Hilal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market13 Mar 2034
Ebube Duru hands in a written request
“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-Hilal can pretend not to have heard.
Market13 Mar 2034
“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-Hilal heard it as anything else.
Market13 Mar 2034
Only the photograph left for Tobías Pantoja
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tobías Pantoja will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Hilal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad13 Mar 2034
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Mar 2034
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Théo Hernández 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.