“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 The request is on a desk at Al-Taawoun, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Fahad Al-Rashidi 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Abdulrahman Hindi, and the manager let it.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Mubarak Al-Rajeh'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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Taawoun can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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-Taawoun this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nawaf Al-Huwiri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Taawoun know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Ricardo Mathias’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Al-Taawoun needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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-Taawoun have no good answer.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Taawoun have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Taawoun know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Al-Orobah go through and Al-Taawoun 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.
Al-Taawoun asked and Al-Ahli said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Parfait Guiagon. 2‑0 against Al-Ettifaq, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Fahad Al-Rashidi 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.
6 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.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Al-Nahda waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Al-Taawoun is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 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.
The new man at Al-Taawoun has worked with Mubarak Al-Rajeh before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
The chase for Mohammed Al-Absi ended with $1.2M changing hands and Al-Ittihad out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Abderrazak Hamdallah 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 new man at Al-Taawoun has worked with Mubarak Al-Rajeh before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Al-Taawoun will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Al-Batin waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Al-Taawoun is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Everything agreed with Al-Shabab, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Add another name to the list: Al-Faisaly have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Younes El Bahraoui. The answer from Al-Taawoun has not changed — yet.
“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.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Fahad Al-Rashidi'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 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.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
“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-Taawoun, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Taawoun know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Taawoun have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Taawoun have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Taawoun know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Al-Taawoun would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Al-Taawoun. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“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-Taawoun know it.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jair Collahuazo is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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-Taawoun this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Aschraf El Mahdioui signs something — a contract at Al-Taawoun or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The name of Koshaim Al-Qahtani has come up in conversations Al-Taawoun were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Something was said to Younes El Bahraoui and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Taawoun know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Abderrazak Hamdallah scored in the 88th minute, Al-Fateh had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Al-Taawoun took the lot.
Al-Taawoun asked and Al-Faisaly said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Abderrazak Hamdallah. 2‑1 against Al-Fateh, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I watch every Al-Taawoun game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Ohod runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
He is 22 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.
8.02. 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.
Ibrahim Al-Shuail 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.
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.
6 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.
“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-Taawoun, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Al-Taawoun until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Taawoun can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Jair Collahuazo 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 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.
5 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.
Minute 88, against Al-Hilal, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Ziyad Al-Qahtani 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-Taawoun 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.
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Nasser Al-Harbi chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Al-Hazem waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Al-Taawoun is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Abderrazak Hamdallah 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-Taawoun asked and Al-Fayha 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 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-Taawoun, and 3 appearances in 19 say he has earned the hearing.
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 is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Al-Taawoun are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
“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-Taawoun, and it is not being withdrawn.
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-Taawoun this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Marin Petkov 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.
“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-Taawoun, and 12 appearances in 20 say he has earned the hearing.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Abderrazak Hamdallah provided it, and the 8.97 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Two goals and a mark of 8.16 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Cristhoper Zambrano 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.
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.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
0‑3 to Al-Ahli, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
3 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Nasser Al-Harbi after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Fahad Al-Rashidi'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.
Nobody at Al-Taawoun is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Nobody at Al-Taawoun 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Al-Taawoun will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Aschraf El Mahdioui signs something — a contract at Al-Taawoun or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Younes El Bahraoui is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Al-Taawoun and Al-Hilal, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Beaten 6 times, 3 saves, and an afternoon that will go on his record whether it was his fault or the defence’s. It is the quiet unfairness of the position.
Ibrahim Al-Shuail 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 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jair Collahuazo is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
14 new faces, and Al-Taawoun 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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Nasser Al-Harbi to a room that had heard them before.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Abdulelah Hawsawi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Hamoud Bassam had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al-Ettifaq keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Al-Taawoun have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Abderrazak Hamdallah 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.
Add another name to the list: Al-Saudi Al-Watani have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Hamoud Bassam. The answer from Al-Taawoun has not changed — yet.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Nasser Al-Harbi after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.