Rashed Issam

Central Defender - Al Ahli
5 Sep 2032
Sunday
Process

Marked for Rashed Issam

318 Edition

The Al Ahli Post

30 Aug 2032
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

102 days out for Nasser Ismail after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al Ahli will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Match

Every point is an argument now for Al Ahli

Position 14 and 8 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.

Market

Faisal Al Bloushi hands in a written request

“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 Ahli can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

Erik in a row with a teammate

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 Ahli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Boardroom

Al Ahli cannot sign anybody

The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.

Squad

Words at Al Ahli training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amer Rashid 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 dugout

No hiding place for Sultan Obaid

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sultan Obaid, and the manager let it.

Market

Erik linked with a move away

The name of Erik keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Al Ahli say nothing, which says plenty.

Market

Still no signature from Faisal Al Bloushi

5 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Al Ahli could get for him.

In brief

Back issues
317 Edition

The Al Ahli Post

23 Aug 2032
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

A fracture rules Nikola Bursać out for 27 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al Ahli will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Market

Suhail Abdulla says no to Al Fujairah

“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Suhail Abdulla had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.

Market

Sahar Hershkovich hands in a written request

“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 Ahli can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

A row about effort at Al Ahli

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lautaro Vazquez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Nasser Ismail in a row with a teammate

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 Ahli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Boardroom

141% of the income goes out in wages at Al Ahli

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.

Squad

Al Ahli are still strangers to each other

8 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.

The dugout

Faisal Al Bloushi gets it from the manager

“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.

Market

Ali Mabkhout linked with a move away

The name of Ali Mabkhout keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Al Ahli say nothing, which says plenty.

In brief

253 Edition

The Al Nasr Courier

2 Jun 2031
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

109 days out for Chris Bedia after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al Nasr will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Market

Rashed Issam puts it in writing

“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 Nasr, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Hamad Mohammad is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al Nasr is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Market

João Moreira raises the bar for Al Nasr

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Al Nasr heard it as anything else.

Squad

A falling-out at Al Nasr

Ramón Mierez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Mateo Karamatić falls out with a teammate over standards

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 dugout

When it matters, Marouan Azarkan plays

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.

Squad

Thiago Pimenta is no longer first choice

The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Thiago Pimenta has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.

Market

The Ramón Mierez story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ramón Mierez signs something — a contract at Al Nasr or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

In brief

241 Edition

The Al Nasr Courier

10 Mar 2031
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Hamad Mohammad is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al Nasr is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

A falling-out at Al Nasr

Ramón Mierez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Mateo Karamatić falls out with a teammate over standards

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 dugout

No hiding place for Chris Bedia

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Chris Bedia, and the manager let it.

Market

Al Nasr and Moussa N'Diaye are talking past each other

“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.

The dugout

Marouan Azarkan has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Al Nasr 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.

Market

The Ramón Mierez story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ramón Mierez signs something — a contract at Al Nasr or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

The dugout

Zayed Sultan knocks on the manager’s door

“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Zayed Sultan trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

Market

The clock does Hamad Al Menhali’s negotiating for him

5 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Al Nasr could ask drops and the wages Hamad Al Menhali can ask rise.

In brief

233 Edition

The Al Nasr Courier

13 Jan 2031
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

A hiding for Al Nasr

Beaten 1‑4 by Al Ain, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.

Squad

16 days out for Omar Khribin after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al Nasr will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Market

Adli Mohamed says no to Dibba

“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Adli Mohamed had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.

The dugout

Ajdin Hrustić says Al Nasr went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Transfer targets

Al Nasr baulk at the price for Mohamed Al Hashmi

Al Ain wanted more than $2.9M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.

Player ratings

Ramón Mierez, 33, rolls back the years — 7.80

There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.80 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.

Market

Emanuell Silva Ferreira puts it in writing

“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 Nasr, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Hamad Mohammad has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al Nasr they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Boardroom

Al Nasr to lose Hamad Mohammad for free

There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Hamad Mohammad has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.

In brief