Everyone has stopped pretending: Al Fujairah will make the call about Howell Mena this week. Al Shaab have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ryotaro Tsunoda and Al Shaab agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad25 Jun 2035
Tiago Parente 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.
At 26 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Ryotaro Tsunoda 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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Artúr Horváth 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 84 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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 Shaab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Mar 2035
Words at Al Shaab training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tiago Parente 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 112 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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 Shaab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad12 Feb 2035
Words at Al Shaab training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tiago Parente 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.
Marked 8.11 — 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 37 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.
Erik 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 transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Maid Ahmed is a Al Ahli player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Maid Ahmed has just signed for Al Ahli, and for once the answer mattered.
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
In brief
SquadEthane Azoulay falls out with a teammate over standards