“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 The request is on a desk at Olympique Akbou, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Hamdi Labidi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Olympique Akbou the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Olympique Akbou 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 Rezki Hamroune signs something — a contract at Olympique Akbou or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Aymen Chaaraoui trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nadjib Berrabah will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Olympique Akbou the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Oussama Darfalou 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Emirates Club can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Emirates Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Gianfranco Castellanos 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Emirates Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.87 — 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.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Emirates Club have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Emirates Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Asked to play a role that is not his, or taken off before the hour once too often — Omar Abdulrahman has let it be known that he does not like the way Emirates Club are using him. Managers hear this long before the press does.
Position 12 and 24 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Emirates Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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. Emirates Club will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
A new face in his position, and Agustín Aleo suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Emirates Club have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
Omar Abdulrahman 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 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 Emirates Club know it.
Gianfranco Castellanos 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 table has started to be checked before the results are in, and that is always the tell. Nobody at Emirates Club says the word out loud, and everybody in the building is thinking it.
In brief
SquadBrayan Gómez asks for a word with the manager
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Emirates Club is running low.
“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 Emirates Club, 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 Emirates Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 9.05 — 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.
“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 Emirates Club, and it is not being withdrawn.
Gianfranco Castellanos 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.
Boardroom25 Jan 2027
153% of the income goes out in wages at Emirates Club
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abdulla Al-Nuaimi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Emirates Club the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Gianfranco Castellanos 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 8.88 — 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Junior Horé has his answer from Emirates Club; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Emirates Club is running low.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Emirates Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 21 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Position 12 and 9 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The terraces16 Nov 2026
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 8 of the 33 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Omar Abdulrahman 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.
Beaten 5 times, with 1 saves for company. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines on their record whoever actually caused them, which is the quiet injustice of the job.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of 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 Emirates Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.53 — 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Emirates Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Tomás Silva 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.