19 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Hamza Sakhi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al Shabab the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Al Shabab will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Hamza Sakhi has agreed terms with Al Wahda for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Fahad Mabkhout 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Sultan Saeed 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.
The phone has started ringing about Ismail Al Hashmi again, and this time the name on the line is Stromsgodset. Al Shabab are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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 6 appearances in 39 say he has earned the hearing.
In brief
BoardroomWages eat 87% of everything Al Shabab earn
27 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.
Allan Nyom 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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at Al Shabab training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmed Hassan 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.
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.
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.
5 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Al Shabab could ask drops and the wages Hamza Sakhi can ask rise.
The words a physio says slowly. 34 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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sultan Saeed was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
The words a physio says slowly. 41 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: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Al Shabab training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sultan 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.
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: Ismail Al Hashmi. 1‑0 against Dibba, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
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.” Saeed Nader kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.