“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 Ain can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al Ain have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al Ain is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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 Ain, and 5 appearances in 15 say he has earned the hearing.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al Ain 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 Ain have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al Ain they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“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 Ain, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Shifted about, taken off before the hour, asked to do somebody else's running — Kouamé Autonne has had enough of being useful and would like to be picked. Al Ain know, and have known for weeks.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al Ain they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I did not go to Esteghlal Khuzestan to sit and watch. I want to come back to Al Ain and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 22 matches say the rest.
A season average of 7.00 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Al Ain know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
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 Ain know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.