Emirates Club arrived with $2.3M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
Rashid Al Menhali has gone, the accounts have $2.3M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Khalid Ismail 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.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
Al Ahli spend $1.8M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $1.8M for Lautaro Garzón, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Al Ahli asked and Boca Juniors said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $2.3M has been paid because Rashid Al Menhali is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Emirates Club have gone to Al Shabab with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Emirates Club asked and Al Shabab said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Al-Ahli is saying, and nobody at Emirates Club is enjoying the guessing.
Dibba did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $180.0K for Diego Ferreira, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
$120.0K on the table at Al Wasl. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Diogo Capitão 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.
Rashid Al Menhali was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $2.3M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Emirates Club training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmad Essa 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.
The deal with San Martín SJ is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Najran paid $5.3M and Al Ahli took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
“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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Santos is saying, and nobody at Al Ahli is enjoying the guessing.
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.
Al Ahli asked and Al-Hazem said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Al Ahli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khalid Ismail 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.
Emirates Club and Al Ahli have settled on $2.3M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Emirates Club asked and Al Shabab said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Rashed Essa Juma and Emirates Club agree another 3 years.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ibrahim Al Hammadi has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Sultan Al Suwaidi has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Saeed Saeed has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Sultan Al Bloushi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.