Marked for Julio Coria
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom22 May 2034
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
Match22 May 2034
Al-Ahli up to position 1
52 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market22 May 2034
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Ahli they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market22 May 2034
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom22 May 2034
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Mohammed Al-Sultan has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad22 May 2034
Enzo Millot 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.
Squad22 May 2034
Words at Al-Ahli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francisco Trincão 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.
Market22 May 2034
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad22 May 2034
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market17 Apr 2034
Julio Coria hands in a written request
“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-Ahli can pretend not to have heard.
Market17 Apr 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Ahli is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad17 Apr 2034
Galeno 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.
Squad17 Apr 2034
Words at Al-Ahli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francisco Trincão 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.
Market17 Apr 2034
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Boardroom17 Apr 2034
Wages eat 111% of everything Al-Ahli earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match27 Mar 2034
Al-Ahli are in among the leaders
Position 1 and 52 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market27 Mar 2034
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Ahli they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market27 Mar 2034
Dominik Oroz hands in a written request
“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-Ahli can pretend not to have heard.
Squad27 Mar 2034
Enzo Millot in a row with a teammate
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-Ahli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Mar 2034
Francisco Trincão 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.
Squad27 Mar 2034
“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-Ahli know it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market20 Mar 2034
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market20 Mar 2034
Only the photograph left for Tilen Letonja
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tilen Letonja will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Ahli the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad20 Mar 2034
Enzo Millot 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.
Squad20 Mar 2034
Words at Al-Ahli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francisco Trincão 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.
Boardroom20 Mar 2034
Wages eat 127% of everything Al-Ahli earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad20 Mar 2034
The medical room confirms 58 days on the sidelines for Omar Al-Mutairi, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match27 Feb 2034
Al-Ahli up to position 1
52 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market27 Feb 2034
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ziyad Al-Johani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Ahli the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad27 Feb 2034
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad27 Feb 2034
Enzo Millot in a row with a teammate
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-Ahli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Feb 2034
Francisco Trincão 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.
Squad27 Feb 2034
Francisco Trincão has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Al-Ahli 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market13 Feb 2034
“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-Ahli, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad13 Feb 2034
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market13 Feb 2034
Al-Ahli say no — this time
The offer from Al-Shoulla for Federico Rivas 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.
Squad13 Feb 2034
Galeno in a row with a teammate
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-Ahli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Feb 2034
Francisco Trincão 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.
Boardroom13 Feb 2034
Al-Ahli counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Al-Ahli now.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market12 Dec 2033
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Ahli they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad12 Dec 2033
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al-Ahli may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings12 Dec 2033
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.37 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market12 Dec 2033
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad12 Dec 2033
Galeno 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.
Squad12 Dec 2033
Words at Al-Ahli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francisco Trincão 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.
Market12 Dec 2033
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad12 Dec 2033
Enzo Millot is still paying for one afternoon at Al-Ahli
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.
Match10 Dec 2033
It needed Francisco Trincão to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Al-Ittihad, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.