Marked for Lucas Chavez
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market21 Jun 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Al-Qadisiyah, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market21 Jun 2027
Al-Hilal paid $9.8M and Al-Qadisiyah took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Market21 Jun 2027
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Al-Qadisiyah have paid $1.1M for Sultan Farhan, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Market21 Jun 2027
Add another name to the list: MC Alger have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Nahitan Nández. The answer from Al-Qadisiyah has not changed — yet.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Cerro Porteno keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Mahamadou Sangaré 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Al-Qadisiyah training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Chavez 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match10 May 2027
The view from the top for Boca Juniors
26 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Match8 May 2027
12 matches without defeat, and then Independiente. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Squad10 May 2027
Agustín Marchesín 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.
Match8 May 2027
0‑1 to Independiente, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Boca Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastián Villa 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.
Boardroom10 May 2027
Nobody left the Boca Juniors dressing room in a hurry
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.
Loan watch10 May 2027
“I watch every Boca Juniors game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al-Qadisiyah runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout10 May 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Carlos Marino after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Market10 May 2027
Ander Herrera is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Boca Juniors has been clear about where Ander Herrera stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Apr 2027
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Qadisiyah will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Koen Casteels and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Nacho 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.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
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 Mohammed Abu Al-Shamat is on it.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mohammed Al-Qahtani trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market19 Apr 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Christopher Bonsu Baah’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad29 Mar 2027
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad29 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Boca Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match27 Mar 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Boca Juniors did not have in the autumn.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Matías Satas
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.24, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match27 Mar 2027
After 4 games, Boca Juniors finally taste it again
The first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Instituto; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match27 Mar 2027
Level with 85 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Boca Juniors had all but put away. Instituto will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Santiago Ascacíbar 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Feb 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Qadisiyah will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market22 Feb 2027
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Al-Qadisiyah can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Koen Casteels and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tijjani Reijnders was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad22 Feb 2027
The formation has left Lucas Chavez behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Al-Qadisiyah will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
Nobody at Al-Qadisiyah 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.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“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-Qadisiyah, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market22 Feb 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Christopher Bonsu Baah’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Al-Qadisiyah. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.