“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 The request is on a desk at Al-Ta'ee, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Al-Ra'ed for Amer Khalil 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.
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-Ta'ee this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Al-Ta'ee training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dino Halilović 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.
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.
In brief
BoardroomWages eat 119% of everything Al-Ta'ee earn
“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-Ta'ee can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Al-Diriyah for Amer Khalil 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Luis Haquín 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.
At 29 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.
Hassan Al-Amri 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Al-Ta'ee training over how hard people work
“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-Ta'ee are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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-Ta'ee this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Al-Ta'ee training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dino Halilović 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.
At 23 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.
A first appearance Omar Moawad will want to forget — 5.67
Everybody's debut is one of two stories and this was the other one. 5.67, and the only consolation available is that nobody's career has ever been decided by ninety minutes in a shirt he had just been given.
Luis Haquín 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.
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.
“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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Al-Ta'ee training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonata Machado 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Al-Ta'ee, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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-Ta'ee, 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-Ta'ee this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Amer Khalil has come up in conversations Al-Ta'ee were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Al-Batin made Al-Ta'ee work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Al-Ta'ee training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nawaf Al-Quamiri 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.
Marked 8.05. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Al-Ta'ee.
Squad4 Jan 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Luis Haquín'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.
Omar Moawad is 20, and Al-Ta'ee 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.