50 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al Wahda lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 The request is on a desk at Al Wahda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gerónimo Rivera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Leonel Wamba has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
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.
59 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Wahda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The chase for Abdoulaye Touré ended with $1.0M changing hands and Al Nasr out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Oussama Bentaleb 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.
Nobody at Al Wahda 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Al Wahda are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“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 Wahda, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al Wahda know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
108 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Wahda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
5 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.
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.
Match9 May 2029
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Al Wahda. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
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.
134 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al Wahda lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Reza Ghandipour 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.
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 Abdoulkarim Traoré is on it.
The dugout23 Apr 2029
Rostand Djooh is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Words at Al Wahda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bandar Al Shamsi 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al Wahda know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Al Wahda. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“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 Wahda hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gerónimo Rivera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Rostand Djooh 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 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al Wahda know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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 Wahda, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Adam Gnezda Čerin’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know 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 Wahda, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
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 Wahda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Reza Ghandipour. 2‑0 against Emirates Club, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.09 — 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Leonel Wamba will call it something else in private.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Walid Omar on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
Nobody at Al Wahda 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.
“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 Wahda, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al Wahda know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Al Jazira in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at Al Wahda and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Abdoulkarim Traoré plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al Wahda have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
This is not rotation. Facundo Kruspzky has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Al Wahda is pretending otherwise.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Words at Al Wahda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Milson 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.
At 23 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.
Marked 8.14 — 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.
Sultan Rashid 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 dugout30 Oct 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Walid Omar, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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 Reza Ghandipour is on it.
In brief
Player ratingsAli Mabkhout beats them one at a time
Reza Ghandipour and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Words at Al Wahda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Milson 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.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Abdoulkarim Traoré signs something — a contract at Al Wahda or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Mansour Saleh’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Al Wahda needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Abdoulkarim Traoré may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Al Wahda. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gerónimo Rivera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has nothing to do with his form and everything to do with how the squad was assembled. He will train all week with a group he is not permitted to play for, which is a strange way to spend a season.
Sultan Rashid 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.
“I watch every Al Wahda game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al Shabab runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al Wahda know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Al Nasr had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“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 Wahda can pretend not to have heard.
Sharjah paid $1.2M and Al Wahda took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Milson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Reza Ghandipour is on it.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Al Wahda that is a harder question to answer.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Al Wahda will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al Wahda will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
This is not rotation. Facundo Kruspzky has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Al Wahda is pretending otherwise.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Words at Al Wahda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Milson 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al Wahda can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Guga 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.
Nobody at Al Wahda 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al Wahda know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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 Wahda, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Wahda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Words at Al Wahda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gerónimo Rivera 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Al Wahda told Gerónimo Rivera something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
“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 Wahda, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
“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.
Al Shaab paid $230.0K and Al Wahda took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
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.
Mohamed Khalfan 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 did not go to Al Shabab to sit and watch. I want to come back to Al Wahda and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
Squad17 Jul 2028
6 new faces, and Al Wahda are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
In brief
The dugoutMoussa Diarra has become a man the manager trusts
The offer from Al Nasr for Facundo Kruspzky 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.
Al Wahda offered $4.3M; Al Wasl said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
5 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.
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 Moussa Diarra is on it.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Al Wahda will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Al Wahda would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Al Wahda arrived with $2.6M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
Leonel Wamba has gone, the accounts have $2.6M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Al Shabab offered $3.6M; Al Wahda said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Al Shabab asked and Emirates Club said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Al Shabab have gone to Al Dhafra with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Nasser Mansi 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.
With 5 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Words at Al Shabab training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mayed Saeed 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.
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 Nasser Mansi is on it.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Leonel Wamba is a Al Wahda player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
The fee is $750.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Al Ain drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $182.0K — a club that wants Rodrigo enough to be asked twice.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Emirates Club have kept their man, and Al Wahda go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Rostand Djooh is living that version at Al Wahda, and it tends to show in the first month.
Omar Khribin 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.
Al Wahda have gone to Al Wasl with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
In brief
SquadMilson falls out with a teammate over standards
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 Shabab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The phone has started ringing about Leonel Wamba again, and this time the name on the line is Al Wahda. Al Shabab are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words at Al Shabab training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Agustín Lastra 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Fahad Al Hashmi has his answer from Al Shabab; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Hamdan Al Shamsi is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“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 Wahda can pretend not to have heard.
Al Wahda and Al Ain have settled on $750.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Al Wahda have gone to Al Shabab with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Al Wahda have gone to Al Dhafra with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
“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 Wahda 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 Wahda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Done, and with games to spare. Next season has floodlit nights against clubs from other countries in it, and the accounts have a line they did not have last year.
The words a physio says slowly. 20 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.
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.
Ibrahim Mabkhout 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 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.
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Shabab lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Position 2, 54 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Agustín Lastra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Shabab know it.
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 Shabab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Al Shabab 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.
The dugout8 May 2028
Hassan Yaqoob is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The words a physio says slowly. 35 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.
“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.
Squad1 May 2028
Mayed Saeed 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.
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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
42 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al Shabab lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Nasser Mansi 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 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.
Nobody at Al Shabab 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.
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 Shabab have no good answer.
“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 Shabab, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
BoardroomThe Al Shabab production line keeps running
BoardroomThe Al Shabab board put their names to it
Ibrahim Mabkhout 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 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.
Nobody at Al Shabab 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.
Leonel Wamba has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Al Shabab has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Al Ain go through and Al Shabab go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Leon Herdes has just signed for Al Shabab, and for once the answer mattered.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Nobody at Al Shabab 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.
In brief
The dugoutIbrahim Mabkhout is still being punished for one mistake
Nasser Mansi 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 watch every Al Shabab game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sharjah runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Fahad Hassan.
Nobody at Al Shabab 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.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Abdullah Al Menhali was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Al Shabab dressing room was either.
Something was said to Marcelo Henrique and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Baniyas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Baniyas close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 3 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.
João Victor 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ibrahim Al-Hosani is living that version at Baniyas, and it tends to show in the first month.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al Shabab have kept their man, and Baniyas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Baniyas pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
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 Shabab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every Al Shabab game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sharjah runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Abdullah Al Menhali left the room before anybody could ask which.
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 Salem Al Kamali is on it.
Something was said to Mohamed Amine Katiba and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Position 2, 31 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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 11 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
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.
Ibrahim Mabkhout 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Half the programme played, position 2, 31 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ismail Al Hashmi and Al Shabab agree another 5 years.
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.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Al Shabab will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Nasser Mansi 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and João Carvalho trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Al Shabab would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ismail Al Hashmi commits to Al Shabab for another 5 years.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Al Shabab training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fahad Hassan 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.
“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 Shabab are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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 Salem Al Kamali is on it.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al Shabab know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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 Shabab, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at Al Shabab training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcelo Henrique 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.
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.
“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 Shabab, and it is not being withdrawn.
Al Shaab paid $110.0K and Al Shabab took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
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 Ali Mabkhout is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Salem Al Kamali signs something — a contract at Al Shabab or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
42 points from position 6. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
In brief
The dugoutLeonel Wamba knocks on the manager’s door