Bruno Varela damages knee ligaments — 125 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 125 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Hazem is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al-Hazem people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 The request is on a desk at Al-Hazem, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Hazem have done the hard part with Al-Ahli, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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-Hazem this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Battal Al-Harthi has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Al-Hazem have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad3 Jul 2034
Words at Al-Hazem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raf Schaefer 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 bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Hazem will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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-Hazem can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Hazem they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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-Hazem this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Apr 2034
Raf Schaefer 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.
“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-Hazem know it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Al-Hazem, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Hazem will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Muhannad Barah will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Hazem the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Hazem have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yaseen Al-Jaber was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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-Hazem this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Al-Hazem has been clear about where Talal Al-Shehri stands, which is more than many ever get.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Two goals and a mark of 8.93 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.82 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Muath Al-Habib 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.
6 goals in one match, Muath Al-Habib on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Al-Hazem and Al-Diriyah.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yaseen Al-Jaber was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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-Hazem, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Hazem is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Dunga has, at Al-Hazem, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Salman Al-Ghamdi has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Al-Hazem have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad20 Feb 2034
Words at Al-Hazem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yaseen Al-Jaber 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.
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.23, and nobody on the pitch better.
Player ratings12 Dec 2033
Up for the corner, and Raf Schaefer delivers — 7.99
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Raf Schaefer scored, was marked 7.99, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Raf Schaefer 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jaloliddin Hasanov and Al-Hazem agree another 4 years.
Position 4, 25 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
The dugout12 Dec 2033
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.” Charles Parker kept it short after the 3‑2 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Al-Hazem have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
18 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Hazem is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Al-Hazem can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad12 Sep 2033
Words at Al-Hazem training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raf Schaefer 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Al-Hazem are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.