Alejandro Otero 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sultan Al Hashmi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.00 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“I did not go to Al Fujairah to sit and watch. I want to come back to Al Shabab and fight for my place.” 7 appearances in 21 matches say the rest.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Ibrahim Al Kamali kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Mohamed Rashid scored, was marked 7.91, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Alejandro Otero 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Al Shabab and Dibba in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 20 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Nicolás Pantaleone 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Al Shabab training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sultan Al Hashmi 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.
“I watch every Al Shabab game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al Jazira runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Sultan Al Hashmi had Al Shabab level again within 3 minutes, and Al Wahda never got to play with a lead at all.
The words a physio says slowly. 29 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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 Shabab can pretend not to have heard.
“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 Shabab know it.
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 Shabab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Al Shabab, and 2 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Shabab lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Matías Kranevitter 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.
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 dugout22 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Ibrahim Al Kamali to a room that had heard them before.
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 Hamad Saeed is on it.
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Shabab lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Alejandro Otero 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Al Shabab training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sultan Al Hashmi 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.
Nobody at Al Shabab 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Khalid Mabkhout’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Al Shabab needing him to play as if none of it matters.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Al Shabab would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
53 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Shabab lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
61 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al Shabab lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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 Shabab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Al Shabab training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bandar Al Hashmi 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 dugout1 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Ibrahim Al Kamali to a room that had heard them before.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
69 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Shabab lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Alejandro Otero 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.
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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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 Alejandro Otero is on it.
83 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Shabab lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Al Shabab, and 0 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
Nobody at Al Shabab 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.
Al Dhafra next, and one man in the Al Shabab dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al Shabab know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
99 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Shabab lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Shabab are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Alejandro Otero 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Al Shabab training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sultan Al Hashmi 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Al Shabab, and 3 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Ibrahim Al Kamali to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Idir Mokeddem
Majid Surour damages knee ligaments — 106 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 106 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Alejandro Otero 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 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Salem Al Hashmi and Al Shabab agree another 4 years.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Ibrahim Al Kamali left the room before anybody could ask which.
113 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Shabab lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
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.
Marked 8.19. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Al Shabab.
Squad13 Sep 2027
8 new faces, and Al Shabab are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
120 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Shabab lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Shabab can pretend not to have heard.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 22 arrived, 16 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Al Jazira paid $2.5M and Al Shabab took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
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 Shabab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Saeed Al Junaibi 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. Rashid Mabkhout 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.
Majid Surour damages knee ligaments — 136 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 136 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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 Shabab, and it is not being withdrawn.
Alejandro Otero 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 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.
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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
143 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al Shabab lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The deal with Al Ain 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.
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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Rayan Al-Mousa has written the date down.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $3.1M has been paid because Rúben Canedo is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Al Shabab asked and Al Wahda 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 offer from Al Fujairah for Khalid Al Hammadi 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 Shabab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces9 Aug 2027
Al Shabab spend $3.1M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $3.1M for Rúben Canedo, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bandar Al Hashmi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Al Shabab have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
Al Shabab have gone to Al Wahda 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al Shabab can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Alejandro Otero 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.
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.
12 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Nobody at Al Shabab 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al Shabab know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Idir Mokeddem has written the date down.
Alejandro Otero 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.
Nobody at Al Shabab 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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Rayan Al-Mousa has written the date down.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at Al Shabab and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Issam Faiz
“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 Shabab can pretend not to have heard.
The name of Abdullah Al Bloushi has come up in conversations Al Shabab were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Al Shabab, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Mohamed Rashid is on it.
“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 Shabab, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at Al Shabab and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al Shabab people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Alejandro Otero 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.
Al Shabab offered $24.0K; Al Wahda said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sultan Al Hashmi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Zayed Ahmed and Al Shabab agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Jul 2027
13 new faces, and Al Shabab are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
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 Sultan Al Hashmi is on it.
“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 Shabab, and it is not being withdrawn.
The chase for Walid Al Kamali ended with $150.0K changing hands and Al Ahli out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The fee is $77.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Al Wahda drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
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.
The offer went to Al Wahda this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The offer from Esteghlal Khuzestan for Sultan Rashid 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.
Al Shabab asked and Al Dhafra 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 deal with Al Wahda 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.
Nicolás Pantaleone 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sultan Al Hashmi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Al Shabab know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Nobody at Al Shabab 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Al Jazira had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The offer from Independiente for Alejandro Otero 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.
Market14 Jun 2027
Bruno arrives at Al Shabab in a $3.9M statement of intent
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Al Shabab have paid $3.9M for Bruno, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Rashid Al Bloushi was one of the reasons people came, and $3.5M does not replace that by itself.
Al Shabab had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Al Jazira, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The deal with Al Ain 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.
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 Shabab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
In brief
The terraces$3.9M for Bruno, and Al Shabab supporters approve
Al Jazira have accepted the money. What Al Shabab do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“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 Shabab, and it is not being withdrawn.
Al Shabab had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Al Jazira, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Alejandro Otero 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.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Rashid Al Bloushi is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Alejandro Otero 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sultan Al Hashmi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
26 appearances and 0 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Nobody at Al Shabab 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Abdullah Al Bloushi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Adrian Svanbäck scored in the 89th minute, Degerfors had already begun thinking about the journey home, and BK Hacken took the lot.
Degerfors made BK Hacken work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad17 May 2027
Elliot Stroud 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.
14 goals in 36 games at Vitesse — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at BK Hacken updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“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 ratings17 May 2027
Danilo Al-Saed was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.13. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at BK Hacken this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
9 combined actions and 6.82. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Hamad Saeed 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.
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.
Rashid Al Bloushi has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Idir Mokeddem has written the date down.
A few words of the language, a friend at the next peg, and a training ground that has stopped feeling foreign. Nothing measurable, and everything visible on Saturdays.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Alejandro Otero 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Elliot Stroud was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Alejandro Otero and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at BK Hacken is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
1 for Gustav Berggren, marked 7.81, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Alejandro Otero 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.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at BK Hacken training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Elliot Stroud 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
IFK Norrkoping will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. BK Hacken were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Alejandro Otero and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Elliot Stroud 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Adrian Svanbäck has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Etrit Berisha 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
Words at BK Hacken training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Elliot Stroud 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at BK Hacken, and 3 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at BK Hacken is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom5 Apr 2027
Deadline passes with 19 signed and 6 gone
That is the business done at BK Hacken until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
BK Hacken asked and Västerås SK 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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al-Ahli keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Elliot Stroud was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Linus Berg 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. Karl Guidetti 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. Simon Quaison 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.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
The name of Ben Engdahl has come up in conversations BK Hacken were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The terraces15 Mar 2027
BK Hacken spend $3.3M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $3.3M for Gustav Berggren, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Alejandro Otero 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Elliot Stroud 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.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and BK Hacken know which stage they are at.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
BK Hacken asked and Silkeborg said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Etrit Berisha 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.
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.
12 goals in 29 games at Vitesse — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at BK Hacken updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and BK Hacken know which stage they are at.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Olympiacos is saying, and nobody at BK Hacken 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 BK Hacken this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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; BK Hacken are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
BK Hacken asked and Silkeborg 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 words a physio says slowly. 20 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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 Shabab, and it is not being withdrawn.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The phone has started ringing about Alejandro Otero again, and this time the name on the line is BK Hacken. Al Shabab are listening politely and promising nothing.
The words a physio says slowly. 28 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Mohamed Rashid 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.
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 Mohamed Rashid is on it.
BK Hacken offered $51.0K; Hammarby said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Elliot Stroud 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Ta'ee have kept their man, and BK Hacken go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. BK Hacken will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting David Seger'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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at BK Hacken has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Shabab lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Al Wahda moved on, Rashid Al Bloushi reports back to Al Shabab, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Al Shabab asked and Al Nasr said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Shabab lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Shabab can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Al Shaab for Khalid Hussain 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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al Shabab have done the hard part with Baniyas, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Rashid Al Bloushi 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Al Wahda will make the call about Rashid Al Bloushi this week. Al Shabab have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Al Shabab asked and Al Nasr 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 words a physio says slowly. 51 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The offer from Al Ain for Hamad Saeed 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.
Rashid Al Bloushi 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 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 Sultan Al Hashmi is on it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Ibrahim Al Kamali after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The words a physio says slowly. 59 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Alejandro Otero 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Khalfan Abdulrahman and Al Shabab agree another 4 years.
Nobody at Al Shabab 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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Al Shabab have made Rashid Al Bloushi available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Ibrahim Al Kamali chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
67 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Shabab lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Al Jazira had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“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 Shabab, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al Jazira keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
Alejandro Otero 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.
76 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Shabab lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a 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 Shabab, and it is not being withdrawn.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Al Shabab will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
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 Shabab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Al Shabab has been clear about where Rashid Al Bloushi stands, which is more than many ever get.
The words a physio says slowly. 84 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sultan Al Hashmi. 2‑0 against Al Ahli, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.02 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
93 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al Shabab lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Hamad Saeed obliged against Al Nasr. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Al Shabab.
“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 Shabab, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match19 Dec 2026
Khalid Hussain wins it after the whistle should have gone
90 minutes played. Khalid Hussain found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Al Ain went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
1 for Nikola Vukić, marked 7.82, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
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 Shabab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Amer Mabkhout is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
101 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al Shabab lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Dibba the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Al Shabab will enjoy reviewing.
The offer from Independiente for Alejandro Otero 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.
Rashid Al Bloushi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Hamad Saeed was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.01. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
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 Mohamed Rashid is on it.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Ibrahim Al Kamali chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
Successful dribbles: 13. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
108 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al Shabab lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Rashid Al Bloushi 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Salem Ismail
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Salem Ismail has come out of that comparison in the side, and Al Shabab have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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 Alejandro Otero is on it.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Ibrahim Al Kamali after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
115 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al Shabab lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
1 for Nikola Vukić, marked 7.87, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
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.
At 22 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nikola Vukić. 2‑0 against Emirates Club, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Ibrahim Al Kamali on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mohamed Rashid signs something — a contract at Al Shabab or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutSalem Ismail has become a man the manager trusts
The words a physio says slowly. 124 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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 Shabab can pretend not to have heard.
1 for Rayan Al-Mousa, marked 7.29, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Alejandro Otero 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ibrahim Al Kamali after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Al Shabab told Arshia Sarshogh something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Every touch weighed, every quote parsed, every mistake replayed. Some players grow into that; some are quietly finished by it; nobody knows which until afterwards.
131 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al Shabab lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Alejandro Otero 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Khalid Al Hammadi and Al Shabab agree another 4 years.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Al Shabab told Idir Mokeddem something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Nobody at Al Shabab 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al Shabab know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Nasser Al Hammadi has his answer from Al Shabab; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nasser Al Hammadi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The words a physio says slowly. 138 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Successful dribbles: 34. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Up for the corner, and Nikola Vukić delivers — 7.99
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Nikola Vukić scored, was marked 7.99, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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 Shabab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
With 4 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
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.
105 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al Shabab lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Rashid Al Bloushi 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.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Nobody at Al Shabab 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.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mohamed Rashid signs something — a contract at Al Shabab or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
113 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Shabab lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Shabab can pretend not to have heard.
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 Shabab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alejandro Otero. 2‑1 against Baniyas, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Marked 8.64. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Al Shabab.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Mohamed Rashid was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.06. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The words a physio says slowly. 120 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Khalfan Abdulrahman did not need any: 8.30, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
7.84, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
“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 Shabab know it.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 128 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
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 Shabab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
9 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The words a physio says slowly. 137 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Two goals and a mark of 7.99 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Three points for Al Shabab, 3‑1 the final word against Al Fujairah in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Alejandro Otero was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.44. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Ahmed Rashid
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Ahmed Rashid has come out of that comparison in the side, and Al Shabab have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Ibrahim Al Kamali, on a 3‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
144 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Shabab lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Alejandro Otero 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.
Marked 8.34 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
151 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al Shabab lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al Shabab will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Alejandro Otero 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Khalid Al Hammadi is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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 bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al Shabab will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
1 for Mohamed Rashid, marked 7.57, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Rashid Al Bloushi 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Mohamed Rashid has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
A performance of 8.22 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad14 Sep 2026
9 new faces, and Al Shabab are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The words a physio says slowly. 18 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al Shabab will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Shabab, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fahad Al Naqbi has gone, the accounts have $1.5M 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Juan Martín Rojas has just signed for Al Shabab, and for once the answer mattered.
The name of Douglas Costa has come up in conversations Al Shabab were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Al Shabab have paid $1.4M for Juan Martín Rojas, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
MC Oran paid $1.5M and Al Shabab took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The words a physio says slowly. 27 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The deal with Morón 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $66.8K — a club that wants Tarek Issaoui enough to be asked twice.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Persepolis keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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 Shabab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$62.0K 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.
The name of Bandar Al Hashmi has come up in conversations Al Shabab were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Huracán have kept their man, and Al Shabab go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Newcastle United arrived with $75.3M 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.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Guilherme Nardo has gone, the accounts have $75.3M 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.
The offer from Padideh for Fahad Al Naqbi 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Al Shabab heard it as anything else.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al Shabab have done the hard part with Persepolis, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Alejandro Otero 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Douglas Costa
Add another name to the list: Newcastle United have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Guilherme Nardo. The answer from Al Shabab has not changed — yet.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. MC Alger have kept their man, and Al Shabab go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
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 most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Al Shabab will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alejandro Otero trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.