45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Qadisiyah lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Qadisiyah will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Sanzhar Kemelbek reports back to Al-Qadisiyah with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Musab Al-Juwayr 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 shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Add another name to the list: Ohod have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ehsan Ebrahimi. The answer from Al-Qadisiyah has not changed — yet.
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.
66 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Qadisiyah lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 93th minute. Al-Ra'ed will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings15 Jan 2035
A brace, and Iker Almena takes the afternoon — 8.51
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Iker Almena provided it, and the 8.51 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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-Qadisiyah 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The words a physio says slowly. 73 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.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.02 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Iker Almena 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.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
The phone has started ringing about Ehsan Ebrahimi again, and this time the name on the line is Al-Jeel. Al-Qadisiyah are listening politely and promising nothing.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Fahad Al-Harbi has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
“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-Qadisiyah can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Qadisiyah is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Souffian El Karouani and Al-Qadisiyah agree another 2 years.
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-Qadisiyah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad3 Jul 2034
Words at Al-Qadisiyah training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Souffian El Karouani 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 shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Turki Al-Ammar 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.
Squad19 Jun 2034
Words at Al-Qadisiyah training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Souffian El Karouani 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Al-Ra'ed will make the call about Daniel Adjessa this week. Al-Qadisiyah have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Iker Almena 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Eitan Dabbur has just signed for Al-Qadisiyah, and for once the answer mattered.
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Boardroom12 Jun 2034
111% of the income goes out in wages at Al-Qadisiyah
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Qadisiyah lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Qadisiyah is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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-Qadisiyah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadIker Almena falls out with a teammate over standards
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sultan Harun will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Qadisiyah the goodbyes have quietly begun.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.96 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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-Qadisiyah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Oct 2033
Words at Al-Qadisiyah training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cameron Puertas 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.
Al-Shabab will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Al-Qadisiyah were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sultan Harun will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Qadisiyah the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Two goals and a mark of 8.37 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings19 Sep 2033
A brace, and Itay Melikson takes the afternoon — 8.02
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Itay Melikson provided it, and the 8.02 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.00 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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-Qadisiyah, and it is not being withdrawn.
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-Qadisiyah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Al-Qadisiyah and Al-Shabab in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
In brief
SquadWords at Al-Qadisiyah training over how hard people work
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 18 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Qadisiyah is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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-Qadisiyah 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-Qadisiyah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Aug 2033
Words at Al-Qadisiyah training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Otávio 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 name of Theyab Absa has come up in conversations Al-Qadisiyah were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Al-Qadisiyah is running low.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Qadisiyah will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Qadisiyah have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Qadisiyah they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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-Qadisiyah can pretend not to have heard.
Koen Casteels 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.
In brief
SquadCameron Puertas falls out with a teammate over standards
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Qadisiyah will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Qadisiyah is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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-Qadisiyah, and it is not being withdrawn.
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-Qadisiyah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Jun 2033
Words at Al-Qadisiyah training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Otávio 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.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Qadisiyah will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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-Qadisiyah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at Al-Qadisiyah training over how hard people work