A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Taawoun will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Al-Taawoun had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Al-Njoom, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Words at Al-Taawoun training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Victor Hugo 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.
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.
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 Bassam Al-Hurayji is on it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Al-Taawoun has been clear about where Raghdan Matri stands, which is more than many ever get.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 80 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Al-Taawoun asked and Al-Njoom said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
At 23 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.
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.
Add another name to the list: Al-Ta'ee have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Hussein Al-Tuti. The answer from Al-Taawoun has not changed — yet.
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.
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.
Position 5 on 44 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
The words a physio says slowly. 16 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Taawoun will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
At 23 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.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Al-Taawoun offered $210.0K; Al-Ittihad 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.
5 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
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.
24 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Taawoun lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 114 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Al-Ta'ee had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Taawoun have done the hard part with Ohod, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Al-Taawoun offered $430.0K; Al-Fayha 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Victor Hugo 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Al-Taawoun has been clear about where Ékené Awazie stands, which is more than many ever get.
38 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Taawoun lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Faisal Omar 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.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Words at Al-Taawoun training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Victor Hugo 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 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 Wesley is on it.
“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.
“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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Bassam Al-Hurayji and Al-Taawoun agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Ahmed Sharahili 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Victor Hugo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Bassam Al-Hurayji is on it.
Faisal Omar 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. David Idaiye has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Al-Taawoun have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Victor Hugo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Qassem Lajami will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Taawoun 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 Al-Taawoun this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Al-Shoulla will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Bander Al-Qahtani has pre-agreed a move to Al-Taawoun, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Victor Hugo 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.
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.
Position 5, 44 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Al-Taawoun. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Faisal Omar 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Victor Hugo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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 medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Taawoun have done the hard part with Al-Hilal, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
At 22 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.
$330.0K was the most the club would pay and Al-Ra'ed were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Cristhoper Zambrano. 2‑0 against Al-Faisaly, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Ékené Awazie has improved at 31, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words at Al-Taawoun training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Victor Hugo 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 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.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Younes El Bahraoui 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 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 38 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
$1.7M on the table at Al-Diriyah. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$1.4M was the most the club would pay and Damac were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The offer went to Al-Njoom this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Parfait Guiagon 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.
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Al-Taawoun will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Victor Hugo 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 bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Taawoun will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yousef Al-Salem will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Taawoun the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Younes El Bahraoui and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Victor Hugo 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.
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 Aschraf El Mahdioui is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Parfait Guiagon signs something — a contract at Al-Taawoun 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 Hussain Al-Qahtani trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Parfait Guiagon has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.