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-Ta'ee 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.
Next up on the road: Al-Riyadh, position 4. The supporters who go will talk about it all week and the ones who do not will check their phones at ten to five.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Törles Knöll
SquadThe training reports on Mousa Assiri are not good
MatchNothing left to play for but pride at Al-Ta'ee
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.
“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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Al-Ta'ee training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonata Machado 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 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
5 new faces, and Al-Ta'ee 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.
Nobody at Al-Ta'ee 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 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Törles Knöll signs something — a contract at Al-Ta'ee or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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-Ta'ee know it.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Ebuka Ogbonna 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 manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout15 Mar 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 0‑3 Sultan Al-Salem left the room before anybody could ask which.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
In brief
The dugoutThe team sheet said everything about Jonata Machado
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.
“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-Ta'ee are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonata Machado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
10 combined actions and 6.84. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Al-Ta'ee pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Sultan Al-Salem after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
4 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.
Luis Haquín 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.
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.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
He went out to keep goal every week and came back with 0 games and 0 of them shut out. Somebody at Al-Ta'ee argued for this move last summer; nobody is arguing for it now.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Sultan Al-Salem after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
SquadWords at Al-Ta'ee training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonata Machado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Market15 Feb 2027
Ammar Al-Ammar returns from a loan that taught him nothing
0 appearances and 0 clean sheets. A goalkeeper learns his job by playing it, and a season that gave him neither the games nor the shut-outs is a year taken off the front of a career.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al-Ta'ee people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Ibrahim Al-Nakhli 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.
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Al-Ta'ee training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonata Machado 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 dugout8 Feb 2027
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Sultan Al-Salem to a room that had heard them before.
Nobody at Al-Ta'ee 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 team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Al-Hazem.
A brace, and Törles Knöll takes the afternoon — 9.17
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Törles Knöll provided it, and the 9.17 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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-Ta'ee can pretend not to have heard.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.88 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Mansour Al-Nakhli has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Al-Ta'ee have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Al-Ta'ee asked and Al-Batin said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Al-Ittihad will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Abdulrahman Al-Obaid has pre-agreed a move to Al-Ta'ee, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Al-Ta'ee asked and Damac said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Ibrahim Al-Nakhli 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yasir Al-Sinan, and the manager let it.
The dugout11 Jan 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 Sultan Al-Salem 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 Abdulrahman Dagriri is on it.
Luis Haquín 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.
Add another name to the list: Al-Shoulla have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Nawaf Al-Quamiri. The answer from Al-Ta'ee has not changed — yet.
“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-Ta'ee know it.
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.
“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-Ta'ee, and 0 appearances in 21 say he has earned the hearing.
Al-Ta'ee have made the call to Al-Diriyah. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Two goals and a mark of 8.55 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Yasir Al-Sinan 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 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.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.78, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Al-Ta'ee training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonata Machado 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 dugout28 Dec 2026
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.” Sultan Al-Salem, on a 3‑2 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Nobody at Al-Ta'ee 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.
“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-Ta'ee, and it is not being withdrawn.
4 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.
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.
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 dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Sultan Al-Salem was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Al-Ta'ee dressing room was either.
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 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonata Machado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“I did not go to Al-Saudi Al-Watani to sit and watch. I want to come back to Al-Ta'ee and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 17 matches say the rest.
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-Ta'ee this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Al-Ta'ee training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonata Machado 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.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 23 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Ibrahim Al-Nakhli 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.
At 22 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonata Machado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Abdulrahman Dagriri’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Al-Ta'ee needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Ta'ee know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jonata Machado trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Hassan Al-Amri has written the date down.
Next up on the road: Al-Shoulla, position 15. The supporters who go will talk about it all week and the ones who do not will check their phones at ten to five.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Fahad Al-Hamad scored, was marked 7.86, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Yasir Al-Sinan 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.
A goal on 90 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Al-Ta'ee training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonata Machado 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 did not go to Al-Saudi Al-Watani to sit and watch. I want to come back to Al-Ta'ee and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonata Machado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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-Ta'ee, and 10 appearances in 12 say he has earned the hearing.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jonata Machado, and the manager let it.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Sultan Al-Salem was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Al-Ta'ee dressing room was either.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The goal that put Al-Hazem ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Al-Ta'ee equalised, 2 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
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 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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
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.” Sultan Al-Salem chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
Something was said to Meshack Maphangule and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Everybody at Al-Ta'ee saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Meshack Maphangule 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 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.
Defensive actions: 15, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
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.” Sultan Al-Salem chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Al-Hazem in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. Al-Ta'ee would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Jonata Machado
“I watch every Al-Ta'ee game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al-Saudi Al-Watani runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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-Ta'ee know it.
Yasir Al-Sinan 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Al-Ta'ee training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonata Machado 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-Ta'ee told Abdullah Al-Joui 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Al-Orobah in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
“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-Ta'ee are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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-Ta'ee this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 12 actions, 7.15, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Rakan Al-Shamlan. 1‑0 against Al-Fayha, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonata Machado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“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-Ta'ee, and it is not being withdrawn.
Al-Ta'ee asked and Al-Ittihad said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Meshack Maphangule 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.
Marked 7.08 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Sultan Al-Salem could afford to be generous.
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.