Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 54 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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-Hilal can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom3 Dec 2040
An order from above at Al-Hilal: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Morteza Gholizadeh will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Hilal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Joaquín Rivero 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 68 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 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 Al-Hilal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.90 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Nov 2040
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joaquín Rivero 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. 82 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Hilal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
In brief
SquadWords at Al-Hilal 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. 117 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for 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-Hilal can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Hilal 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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
In brief
SquadWords at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
The words a physio says slowly. 38 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Hilal will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.91 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Hilal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Add another name to the list: Al-Saudi Al-Watani have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Shodiyor Shodiboyev. The answer from Al-Hilal has not changed — yet.
Ziyad Mallah 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 62 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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-Hilal can pretend not to have heard.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Hilal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad23 Jul 2040
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joaquín Rivero 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 Morteza Gholizadeh has come up in conversations Al-Hilal were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Hilal 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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Hilal is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad30 Apr 2040
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joaquín Rivero 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Hilal is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad19 Mar 2040
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joaquín Rivero 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 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.
Squad19 Mar 2040
5 new faces, and Al-Hilal are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Nobody at Al-Hilal 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Hilal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 10 goals between Al-Hilal and Al-Nahda, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Ziyad Mallah 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.
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.
“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-Hilal, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Masoud Moharrami is living that version at Al-Hilal, and it tends to show in the first month.
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 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Rian Islomov will call it something else in private.
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Dec 2039
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joaquín Rivero 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 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.
“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-Hilal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Owen Xavi Simons will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Hilal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Filip Svensson has just signed for Al-Hilal, and for once the answer mattered.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad12 Sep 2039
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdullah Rashid 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. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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-Hilal 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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 9 goals between Al-Hilal and Al-Batin, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
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. 62 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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-Hilal can pretend not to have heard.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Al-Hilal have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad18 Jul 2039
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joaquín Rivero 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.
“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-Hilal, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
SquadThe manager has not finished forgetting Ernando Ari's mistake
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 76 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Abdullah Rashid is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Takefusa Miyoshi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Hilal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
In brief
SquadWords at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work