“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 The request is on a desk at Al-Taawoun, and it is not being withdrawn.
$1.8M on the table at Al-Shabab. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at Al-Taawoun training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed Al-Dossary 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.
A loan enquiry to Al-Qadisiyah: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad26 Jun 2028
5 new faces, and Al-Taawoun 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.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Abdullah Al-Salem is 35 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
“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 The request is on a desk at Al-Taawoun, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ahmed Bahusayn was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Al-Qadisiyah have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Abdulrahman Hindi has moved up it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Al-Taawoun training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aschraf El Mahdioui 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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“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-Taawoun can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohammed Al-Dossary was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Al-Taawoun has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
“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-Taawoun heard it as anything else.
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.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
A decision that decides nothing on the pitch and everything in the room. The manager has said, without saying it, whose voice he wants heard when his own is not there.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mohammed Al-Absi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
At 21 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Al-Taawoun will try not to make too much of it.
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 Mohammed Al-Kuwaykibi has written the date down.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al-Taawoun may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words at Al-Taawoun training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aschraf El Mahdioui 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.
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 dugout27 Dec 2027
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.” Nasser Al-Harbi chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
“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-Taawoun, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Al-Ettifaq next, and one man in the Al-Taawoun dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Position 4, 31 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
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-Batin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Al-Batin is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Al-Batin training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Simon Falette 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Batin can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Half the programme played, position 12, 15 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout13 Dec 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 0‑4 defeat, delivered by Faisal Al-Shammari to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
The dugoutLizwe Nxele knocks on the manager's door
Simon Falette 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Abdoulay Diaby. 3‑2 against Al-Fayha, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.24. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Al-Batin.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Lizwe Nxele 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Muath Al-Habib is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑2, Faisal Al-Shammari could afford to be generous.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.15 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
9 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Al-Saudi Al-Watani were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Al-Batin training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Simon Falette 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.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Bassem Al-Arini 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.
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-Batin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Faisal Al-Shammari could afford to be generous.
Marked 8.05 — 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Al-Batin training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lizwe Nxele 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.
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.
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
It needed Abdulkarim Al-Qahtani to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Al-Nahda, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“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-Batin can pretend not to have heard.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 7 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Batin has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Simon Falette 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.
“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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 15 signed and 18 gone
That is the business done at Al-Taawoun 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 another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
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-Taawoun this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The new man at Al-Taawoun has worked with Mubarak Al-Rajeh before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Al-Nahda will make the call about Ahmed Bahusayn this week. Al-Taawoun have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Youssouf M'Changama 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.
3 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Al-Batin asked and Al-Fateh said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Al-Batin training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lizwe Nxele 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Ahmed Al-Mutairi has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Omar Al-Qahtani has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Yasser Al-Otaibi has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al-Taawoun people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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-Taawoun know it.
The name of Abdulrahman Hindi has come up in conversations Al-Taawoun were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The new man at Al-Taawoun has worked with Mubarak Al-Rajeh before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Moustapha Sémbène 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.
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Batin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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-Batin, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al-Nassr keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The phone has started ringing about Yousef Fawaz again, and this time the name on the line is Al-Orobah. Al-Batin are listening politely and promising nothing.
Abdulkarim Darisi 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.
Al-Batin offered $10.0K; Al-Qadisiyah said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
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.
Al-Batin asked and Al-Orobah said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
43 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Batin lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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-Batin can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Batin have done the hard part with Al-Taawoun, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Isaías Rodríguez 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.
Al-Batin have gone to Al-Qadisiyah with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Al-Batin asked and Al-Wehda said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
5 new faces, and Al-Batin 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Al-Batin waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Al-Taawoun is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Everything agreed with Al-Shabab, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Add another name to the list: Al-Faisaly have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Younes El Bahraoui. The answer from Al-Taawoun has not changed — yet.
“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 dugout28 Jun 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Fahad Al-Rashidi's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
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.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
The words a physio says slowly. 50 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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-Batin, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Batin have done the hard part with Al-Hilal, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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-Batin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Al-Batin 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.
Al-Wehda wanted more than $22.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Lizwe Nxele 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.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Al-Taawoun have paid $450.0K for Ahmed Al-Mhemaid, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Ahli have kept their man, and Al-Taawoun go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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-Taawoun this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Al-Taawoun are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Squad21 Jun 2027
5 new faces, and Al-Taawoun 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.
“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-Taawoun, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Al-Batin for Bassem Al-Arini was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Taawoun have done the hard part with Al-Fayha, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
“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-Taawoun know it.
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.
The name of Younes El Bahraoui has come up in conversations Al-Taawoun were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Abderrazak Hamdallah 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 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Moustapha Sémbène trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Younes El Bahraoui signs something — a contract at Al-Taawoun 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-Taawoun know it.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jair Collahuazo 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-Taawoun 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 Aschraf El Mahdioui signs something — a contract at Al-Taawoun or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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-Taawoun are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Fahad Al-Rashidi 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 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.
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 Abdulquddus Atiah is on it.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Al-Taawoun will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“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-Taawoun, 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 Al-Taawoun this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Marin Petkov 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.
“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-Taawoun, and 12 appearances in 20 say he has earned the hearing.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 18 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
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.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Najran can tell you which week it ends in.
Mohammed Al-Mahasnah 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 dugout14 Dec 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Abdullah Al-Rashid to a room that had heard them before.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“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 Najran, and it is not being withdrawn.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
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 0‑4 Abdullah Al-Rashid left the room before anybody could ask which.
Shots: 9. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Salem Al-Najdi’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Najran needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Najran, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I am not asking anybody to be better than they are. I am asking everybody to be as good as they are, every week.” Said out loud, in front of everybody, and the room at Najran was different afterwards.
“I watch every Al-Taawoun game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Najran runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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-Taawoun, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Al-Taawoun have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mohammed Umar Bala trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Najran will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Najran. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Taawoun can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Parfait Guiagon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Add another name to the list: Najran have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Bassem Al-Arini. The answer from Al-Taawoun has not changed — yet.
Still no offer on the table, and Oscar’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Najran this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.