The Baniyas Gazette
Match19 Jun 2028
Baniyas are in real trouble now
Position 12, 21 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
An offer of $200.0K for Nasser Nader
Baniyas have gone to Al Shabab with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Mackenzie Hunt 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.
Squad19 Jun 2028
A falling-out at Baniyas
Jacob Awoute and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Fahad Barout stays put
“The easiest signature of my career.” Fahad Barout and Baniyas agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad19 Jun 2028
The formation has left Zayed Khamis behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Baniyas will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout19 Jun 2028
Mouhameth Diop has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Baniyas will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout19 Jun 2028
The manager makes an example of Fahad Barout
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market19 Jun 2028
The Luiz Turatto story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Luiz Turatto signs something — a contract at Baniyas or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
- The dugout The manager makes Luiz Turatto a promise
- Market Baniyas put Jacob Awoute up for sale
- The dugout Hamdan Rashid knocks on the manager's door