Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sharjah 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.” Sharjah have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
15 goals and a season average of 7.36. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad26 Nov 2040
Words at Sharjah training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leandrinho 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 17 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
14 goals and a season average of 7.35 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad12 Nov 2040
Words at Sharjah training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Šimon Vlna 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 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.
17 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Keisuke Sato 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.
11 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
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.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“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 Sharjah, and it is not being withdrawn.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 16 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sharjah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Dibba defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
1‑4 to Al Wahda, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“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 Sharjah, and it is not being withdrawn.
A brace, and Rashid Juma takes the afternoon — 9.00
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Rashid Juma provided it, and the 9.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sharjah will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad1 Oct 2040
Words at Sharjah training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leandrinho 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.
Keisuke Sato 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sharjah will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sharjah can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Squad24 Sep 2040
Leandrinho 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.
Marked 8.43 — 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sharjah have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sharjah will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Sharjah and Al Fujairah, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sharjah will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Sharjah, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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 Sharjah know it.
In brief
SquadWords at Sharjah 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. 85 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Sharjah, 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 Sharjah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Jul 2040
Leandrinho 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.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 113 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
“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 Sharjah, and it is not being withdrawn.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 31 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad28 May 2040
Šimon Vlna 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 59 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Nurbol Nurgaliev 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.
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.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 87 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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 Sharjah can pretend not to have heard.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad2 Apr 2040
Leandrinho 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Sharjah can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
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.
“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 Sharjah, 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 Sharjah 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.
Going 3 down does something to a side, and what it usually does is finish them. Not here. Sharjah rebuilt the afternoon goal by goal, and Al Ahli had no answer to any of it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.37 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mohamed Yasser. 5‑4 against Al Ahli, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.94 beside his name.
Squad20 Feb 2040
Leandrinho 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Eliano Reijnders and Sharjah agree another 1 years.
Squad13 Feb 2040
Words at Sharjah training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leandrinho 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Wataru Tomiyasu has his answer from Sharjah; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Leandrinho signs something — a contract at Sharjah or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Sharjah can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sharjah have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Sharjah know 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 Sharjah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sharjah they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
5 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sharjah can pretend not to have heard.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Sultan Juma has agreed terms with Al Shaab for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad30 Jan 2040
Words at Sharjah training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leandrinho 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 embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Mohamed Yasser 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.
13 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Leandrinho signs something — a contract at Sharjah or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
12 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Sharjah could ask drops and the wages Sultan Juma can ask rise.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sharjah can pretend not to have heard.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mohamed Yasser commits to Sharjah for another 2 years.
Squad9 Jan 2040
Leandrinho 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.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.89 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mohamed Yasser. 3‑1 against Baniyas, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ehsan Karimi 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sharjah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 14 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad12 Dec 2039
Leandrinho 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.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Junya Honda 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sharjah know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Sharjah could ask drops and the wages Sultan Juma can ask rise.
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sharjah lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Sharjah can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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 Sharjah, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Juan Pablo Vásquez and Sharjah agree another 2 years.
“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 Sharjah know it.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 23 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
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.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sharjah lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.00 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
1 for Eliano Reijnders, marked 7.47, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ehsan Karimi. 4‑3 against Al Ahli, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Sharjah and Al Ahli, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad21 Nov 2039
Leandrinho 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ehsan Karimi 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.
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sharjah lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Sharjah, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Bandar Ismail is a Sharjah 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. Bandar Ismail has just signed for Sharjah, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad7 Nov 2039
Leandrinho 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.
58 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sharjah lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sharjah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
65 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sharjah lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Eliano Reijnders and Sharjah agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad17 Oct 2039
Words at Sharjah training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leandrinho 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 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.
72 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sharjah lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Going 2 down does something to a side, and what it usually does is finish them. Not here. Sharjah rebuilt the afternoon goal by goal, and Baniyas had no answer to any of it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sharjah have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sharjah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
93 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sharjah lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Fahad Al-Qibli scored in the 89th minute, Al Dhafra had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Sharjah took the lot.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.13 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Fahad Al-Qibli scored, was marked 7.55, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Sharjah did not have in the autumn.
Squad19 Sep 2039
Words at Sharjah training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leandrinho 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 23 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.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Sharjah scored in the 93th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings21 Feb 2039
A brace, and Omer Shechter takes the afternoon — 9.32
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Omer Shechter provided it, and the 9.32 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sharjah will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
7.97, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sharjah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A 3‑2 win over Al Ahli, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad21 Feb 2039
Leandrinho 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Nasser Abdulrahman 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.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sharjah will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.04 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 Sharjah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Feb 2039
Leandrinho 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.
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.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
In brief
Boardroom92% of the income goes out in wages at Sharjah
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sharjah 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. Walid Al Junaibi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sharjah the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad31 Jan 2039
Words at Sharjah training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leandrinho 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 embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Fahad Al-Qibli 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.
9 combined actions and 6.63. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sharjah will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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; Sharjah are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 21 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ehsan Karimi 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.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sharjah will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Sharjah, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad17 Jan 2039
Words at Sharjah training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leandrinho 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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Juan Pablo Vásquez.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Al Shabab defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sharjah 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 Sharjah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Jan 2039
Leandrinho 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.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
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.