The Al Ahli Post
Market18 Jun 2029
Mohammed Al-Khabrani has said yes to Al Jazira
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Al Ahli have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad18 Jun 2029
27 days out for Mohamed Al Hammadi after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al Ahli will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Favour Ogbu wants to go home
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al Ahli can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Sultan Al Bloushi 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.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2029
Door shut on Abdalla Ramadan
Al Ahli asked and Al Jazira said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Al Ahli count the cost of losing Peter Okocha
20 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Boardroom18 Jun 2029
Wages swallow 94% of the Al Ahli income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The dugout18 Jun 2029
Hamdan Al Bloushi gets it from the manager
“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.
The dugout18 Jun 2029
When it matters, Ibrahim Yaqoob plays
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.
In brief
- Boardroom The numbers do not look good at Al Ahli
- The dugout The manager has not finished forgetting Hamdan Al Bloushi's mistake
- Market The Ibrahim Yaqoob story refuses to die