Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Taawoun will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
Nobody at Al-Taawoun 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 13 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Taawoun 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-Taawoun have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Abderrazak Hamdallah 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Taawoun know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Younes El Bahraoui is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Al-Qadisiyah in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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 Fahad Al-Rashidi has written the date down.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tebogo Mohlamonyane was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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 month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Abdulelah Al-Jaafari is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Aschraf El Mahdioui. 3‑1 against Al-Fateh, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.10 — 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.
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.
“I watch every Al-Taawoun game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al-Njoom runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Cristhoper Zambrano is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Hamad Al-Nemer on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tebogo Mohlamonyane was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Mohammed Al-Helali 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.
“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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Waleed Al-Sultan to a room that had heard them before.
Something was said to Saif Rashad and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
A brace, and Saif Rashad takes the afternoon — 8.74
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Saif Rashad provided it, and the 8.74 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Tebogo Mohlamonyane 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 Al-Njoom know it.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Saif Rashad has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Al-Njoom, another week without a signature from Ayanda Mvambi.
The dugout5 Oct 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.” Waleed Al-Sultan, on a 3‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Hassan Al-Musallam is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Waleed Al-Sultan after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
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.
Successful dribbles: 10. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Khaled Al-Dossari scored, was marked 7.28, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Nassr have kept their man, and Al-Njoom go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tebogo Mohlamonyane 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ahmed Al-Sultan is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Saeed Al-Mutairi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Ayanda Mvambi
That is the business done at Al-Njoom until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Everything agreed with Al-Riyadh, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Al-Njoom asked and Al-Khaleej said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Al-Njoom know which stage they are at.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ukeme Williams trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.