The Al Shaab Sentinel
Squad7 May 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Rodrigo Escandar
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Shaab lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom7 May 2029
Al Shaab put Loris Benito on notice
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market7 May 2029
Only the photograph left for Adel Abubaker Fadaq
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Adel Abubaker Fadaq will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al Shaab the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad7 May 2029
Tempers go at Al Shaab
Rostislav Soldatenko 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.
Squad7 May 2029
Words at Al Shaab training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Youssef Saeed 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.
Squad7 May 2029
Mohamed Mabkhout pulls a muscle — 16 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 16 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.