“I have watched this squad. There is more in it than the table says.” First press conference, first promise — Jacques Sanchez made the one every new manager makes, and now comes the part where it gets checked.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Emirates Club will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Emirates Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Emirates Club training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmed Al Naqbi 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.
A new manager did not pick last season’s side and does not care what it looked like. Erik has taken that personally, in the best sense, and Emirates Club are seeing a version of him the last regime had stopped seeing.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Emirates Club, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Sultan Qasem a promise
The mood at Emirates Club has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Position 14 and 15 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Ahmed Fawzi 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 Ahmed Al Naqbi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Emirates Club lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Ahmed Fawzi 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Emirates Club can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
0‑1 to Al Jazira, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Emirates Club training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Favour Ogbu 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.
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. Emirates Club know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Saipa had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Ahmed Fawzi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Emirates Club training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmed Al Naqbi 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al Shabab have kept their man, and Emirates Club go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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.
91 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Ahli lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
The offer from Al Fujairah for Saeed Omar 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.
Igor Serrote 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al Wahda have kept their man, and Al Ahli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.31, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout18 Jan 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.” Majed Omar kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
In brief
The dugoutSultan Juma has become a man the manager trusts
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Emirates Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Ahmed Al Naqbi from Al Shaab for $4.1M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Qadisiyah have kept their man, and Emirates Club go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jardel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Ahli know it.
Igor Serrote 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 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Louay Trayi 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Majed Hassan was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.21. 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.
8.09. 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.
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Al Ahli, another week without a signature from Yannick Semedo.
“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 Ahli are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
“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 Ahli, and 3 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yannick Semedo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Hassan Sani Mohamed’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Al Ahli needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Al Shaab moved on, Saeed Omar reports back to Al Ahli, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
$96.0K was the most the club would pay and Al Ain were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Yannick Semedo 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 Khalifa Mubarak was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Al Ahli will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Squad14 Sep 2026
9 new faces, and Al Ahli 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Emirates Club can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Emirates Club close the window on a squad of their own making
20 in and 1 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Emirates Club offered $1.5M; Al Ahli 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.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Emirates Club will try again when the window opens; Al Wahda may not be selling by then.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Emirates Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Leandrinho has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
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 plan went upstairs and came back down. Nothing about that will make a headline anywhere else, and everybody who works at the training ground will remember it for years.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
“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 Ahli can pretend not to have heard.
The chase for Louay Trayi ended with $1.3M changing hands and Al Wahda out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
$500.0K settles it between the clubs for Zayed Ahmed
Al Wahda have accepted the money. What Emirates Club do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The offer went to Al Ahli 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 went to Al Jazira 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 chase for Mansour Saleh ended with $270.0K changing hands and Al Wahda out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Emirates Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al Wahda have kept their man, and Al Ahli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
$1.3M was the most the club would pay and Deportivo Riestra were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows 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 Ahli 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.
It is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Nabil Jaadi is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Al Ahli has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
“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.
Abdullah Al Shamsi has gone, the accounts have $3.5M 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.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Al Ahli have paid $2.1M for Igor Serrote, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Al Shaab paid $3.5M 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.
The offer from Al-Ra'ed for Saeed Omar 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.
Bandar Rashid 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Khalid Nader, and the manager let it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
5 new faces, and Al Ahli 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.