“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-Riyadh can pretend not to have heard.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Abdullah Hassoun will call it something else in private.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Al-Riyadh pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“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-Riyadh, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Riyadh know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Riyadh they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Riyadh have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Riyadh know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
The shirt still fits. Mohammed Al-Nemer is back at Al-Riyadh, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
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.
The shirt still fits. Bandar Al-Enezi is back at Al-Riyadh, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Riyadh have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Riyadh know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Lasha-Giorgi Titvinidze has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
“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-Riyadh can pretend not to have heard.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Al-Riyadh have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
The name of Osama Al-Bawardi has come up in conversations Al-Riyadh were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Al-Riyadh, and 5 appearances in 24 say he has earned the hearing.
“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-Riyadh, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Riyadh know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Al-Riyadh, and 2 appearances in 19 say he has earned the hearing.
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. Al-Riyadh would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Al-Riyadh, and 8 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
“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-Riyadh, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Al-Shoulla defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Al-Riyadh, and 2 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Osama Al-Bawardi may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
In brief
The terracesThe press have found their man in Eliandro
SquadThe selectors could not leave Yoann Barbet out
“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-Riyadh, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He is 16, and nobody at Al-Riyadh signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Hamad Al-Juhani is 16, and Al-Riyadh have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Al-Riyadh have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Al-Riyadh have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Asked to play a role that is not his, or taken off before the hour once too often — Tozé has let it be known that he does not like the way Al-Riyadh are using him. Managers hear this long before the press does.
In brief
The terracesThe press cannot get enough of Mamadou Sylla