“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-Ra'ed can pretend not to have heard.
Sabri Dahal is 19, and Al-Ra'ed have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
“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-Ra'ed, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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-Ra'ed can pretend not to have heard.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Al-Ra'ed hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The name of Waleed Al-Shanqeeti has come up in conversations Al-Ra'ed were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“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-Ra'ed, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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-Ra'ed can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Ra'ed is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Al-Qadisiyah pay $170.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Al-Ra'ed pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Asked to play a role that is not his, or taken off before the hour once too often — Bander Whaeshi has let it be known that he does not like the way Al-Ra'ed are using him. Managers hear this long before the press does.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Ra'ed have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Al-Fateh defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
The fee is $180.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Al-Ettifaq drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Omar Al-Shehri is 16, and Al-Ra'ed have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Al-Ra'ed have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Al-Ra'ed have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
In brief
The terracesThe press cannot get enough of Yousri Bouzok
The name of Musaed Al-Johani has come up in conversations Al-Ra'ed were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.