5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Orobah is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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-Orobah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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-Orobah can pretend not to have heard.
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-Orobah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 9.24 — 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jhon Labastidas. 1‑0 against Al-Mojzel, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.44 — 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.
“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-Orobah can pretend not to have heard.
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-Orobah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 9.64 — 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.
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-Orobah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Al-Orobah have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Al-Ettifaq go through and Al-Orobah go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
The terraces18 Sep 2028
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 7 of the 28 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Simy 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 17 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 14 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
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-Orobah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Darwin González signs something — a contract at Al-Orobah or anywhere else — this column belongs to 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 Al-Orobah, 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-Orobah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“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-Orobah, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Orobah have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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-Orobah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Simy 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jassim Al-Ashban signs something — a contract at Al-Orobah or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
11 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. Al-Orobah would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Orobah have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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-Orobah can pretend not to have heard.
Aboubacar Doumbia 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.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Al-Orobah will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
“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-Orobah, 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-Orobah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Simy 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 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-Orobah, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
He is 18, and nobody at Al-Orobah signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Anass Najah signs something — a contract at Al-Orobah or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Omar Abdullah’s exile
Simy 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.
He is 20, and nobody at Al-Orobah signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Erick Hlatshwayo is 20, and Al-Orobah 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-Orobah, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A new face in his position, and Darwin González suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Al-Orobah have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.