44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Fayha lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Chris Smalling 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Basil Al-Hassan is on 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-Fayha, and both men came out saying it was fine.
51 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Fayha lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Fayha have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Chris Smalling 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.
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.
Rayan Al-Bloushi 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Chris Smalling was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mohammed Al-Mohanna trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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-Fayha this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdulrahman Sayadi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mohammed Al-Mohanna trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
Rayyan Enad 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Al-Fayha, another week without a signature from Houbed Ngoube.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Abdullah Aman trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
5 goals in 28 games at Al-Batin — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Al-Fayha updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Yazan Madani arrived with a record at a bigger club than this one, and the room has treated him accordingly. The young ones watch him train; the senior ones watch to see whether it lasts.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Rayyan Enad
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Najran the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Al-Fayha will enjoy reviewing.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 45 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Two goals and a mark of 8.35 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Rayyan Enad 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.
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.
Everybody at Al-Fayha saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Marked 7.00 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdulrahman Sayadi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Al-Fayha will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Najran in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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-Fayha 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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Abdulmajeed Al-Khathami. 1‑0 against Al-Batin, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Fayha can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Something was said to Mohammed Al-Baqawi and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Al-Fayha scored in the 92th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.97 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Rayyan Enad 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Yazan Madani is living that version at Al-Fayha, and it tends to show in the first month.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Rayan Al-Bloushi. 3‑2 against Damac, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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 hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Osama Al-Daghmah did not need any: 7.71, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alexandr Goncharov is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Chris Smalling 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.
It finished 2‑1, and it was Rayan Al-Bloushi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Al-Fayha.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at Al-Fayha training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdulrahman Sayadi 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.
Marked 7.99 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Al-Fayha had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
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.” Hassan Al-Otaibi kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Mohammed Al-Mahasnah 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.
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 finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Hassan Al-Otaibi was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Al-Fayha dressing room was either.
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.
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-Fayha this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Chris Smalling was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
The deal that would have taken Sattam Al-Shammari to Ohod has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Al-Fayha with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Chris Smalling 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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Al-Fayha training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdulrahman Sayadi 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 Mohammed Al-Mohanna.
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Hassan Al-Otaibi was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Al-Fayha dressing room was either.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Al-Fayha have lost him in all but the paperwork.
4 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.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Al-Fayha close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 2 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Rayyan Enad 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.
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.
Al-Orobah made Al-Fayha work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Noah Eoga is the division's best young player this month
At 19 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Al-Fayha will try very hard not to make too much of it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Chris Smalling's mistake
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Noah Eoga did not need any: 7.92, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
3 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bander Al-Qahtani. 4‑3 against Al-Ta'ee, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
7 goals in one match, Bander Al-Qahtani on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Al-Fayha and Al-Ta'ee.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Al-Fayha training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Chris Smalling 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 offer from Hajer for Rayyan Enad was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
Osama Al-Daghmah, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.43
A mark of 8.43 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
10 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Al-Mojzel were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
1 for Adel Al-Mutairi, marked 7.85, 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.
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.
Al-Fayha asked and Al-Nahda said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
At 22 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Al-Fayha have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 6 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
The shirt still fits. Omar Al-Muzayil is back at Al-Fayha, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Chris Smalling was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Khaleej have kept their man, and Al-Fayha go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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-Fayha, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Al-Nahda for Basil Al-Hassan was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Chris Smalling 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Riyadh have kept their man, and Al-Fayha go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
Rayyan Enad 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Chris Smalling was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Fayha lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
6.94, 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 Al-Fayha this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals in one match, Rayan Al-Bloushi on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Al-Fayha and Al-Hazem.
Al-Hazem left with the points after a 2‑4 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Al-Fayha training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Chris Smalling 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Hassan Al-Otaibi after 2‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Fayha lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Al-Fayha training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdulrahman Sayadi 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.
Position 9, 18 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 hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Osama Al-Daghmah did not need any: 8.16, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
7.78, 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.
Rayyan Enad 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Chris Smalling was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mohammed Al-Mohanna and Al-Fayha agree another 1 years.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Osama Al-Daghmah 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Fayha 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-Fayha this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdulrahman Sayadi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Hassan Al-Otaibi left the room before anybody could ask which.
Damac next, and one man in the Al-Fayha dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Francesco Andrea Di Vito and Al-Fayha agree another 3 years.
“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; Al-Fayha are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I watch every Al-Fayha game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al-Nahda runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Abdulrahman Sayadi’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Al-Fayha needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Rayyan Enad signs something — a contract at Al-Fayha or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Fayha will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
Chris Smalling 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.
8 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 young player of the month award goes to a 19-year-old at Al-Fayha who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
18 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.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Adel Al-Mutairi's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Fayha will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Two goals and a mark of 8.23 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Chris Smalling 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.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.66, and 2 involvements.
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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Al-Fayha training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdulrahman Sayadi 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.
Minute 95, against Hajer, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 39 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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-Fayha this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.83, and 2 involvements.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Al-Fayha training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jing Boxi 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
5 new faces, and Al-Fayha 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Hassan Al-Otaibi could afford to be generous.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Fayha will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Noah Eoga 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.
“I watch every Al-Fayha game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al-Nahda runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Fayha will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Al-Fayha this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Al-Fayha training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdulrahman Sayadi 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rayyan Enad trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Al-Fayha that is a harder question to answer.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 61 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Noah Eoga did not need any: 7.85, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Chris Smalling 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jing Boxi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Fayha will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Al-Fayha this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Houbed Ngoube, and the manager let it.
Squad27 Sep 2027
14 new faces, and Al-Fayha 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Hassan Al-Otaibi on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Al-Fayha will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 75 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The 86th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Bander Al-Qahtani decided nobody was going anywhere. Al-Mojzel had no time left to answer.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
At 22 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bander Al-Qahtani. 1‑0 against Al-Mojzel, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Rayyan Enad reports back to Al-Fayha with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Chris Smalling 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.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 34 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Al-Fayha is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Fayha will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 29 signed and 23 gone
That is the business done at Al-Fayha until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Chris Smalling 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Al-Fayha is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Fayha will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Fayha have done the hard part with Al-Qadisiyah, 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-Fayha 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Fayha will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Fayha have done the hard part with Al-Riyadh, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Al-Wehda paid $160.0K and Al-Fayha took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Fayha can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Rayan Al-Bloushi 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.
At 21 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Fayha will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al-Fayha people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The offer from Al-Faisaly for Mohammed Al-Baqawi was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Fayha they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
A new deal for the man in the dugout, and the clearest thing a board can say without calling a press conference about it. Stability is cheap to promise and expensive to deliver.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Fayha have done the hard part with Al-Riyadh, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Fayha 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. Abdulrahman Al-Anazi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Fayha the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Chris Smalling 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 easiest signature of my career.” Mohammed Al-Mohanna and Al-Fayha agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Al-Fayha training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdulrahman Sayadi 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mohammed Al-Baqawi signs something — a contract at Al-Fayha or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Fayha will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Korabi Peshkopi have made their interest known and Al-Fayha have to have a conversation they never wanted. A manager other clubs ask about is a manager whose next contract costs more.
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-Fayha this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Al-Fayha asked and Al-Nassr said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mohammed Al-Mohanna and Al-Fayha agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Al-Fayha training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdulrahman Al-Anazi 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.
Mohammed Al-Mohanna arrives at 34 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Fayha will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al-Fayha people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The chase for Abdulmajeed Al-Khathami ended with $38.0K changing hands and Al-Khaleej out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Al-Fayha, and 0 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Fayha will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer from Al-Shabab for Rayyan Enad was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“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-Fayha can pretend not to have heard.
Mansor Al-Beshe has gone, the accounts have $980.0K in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Fayha is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Al-Ra'ed paid $980.0K and Al-Fayha took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Chris Smalling 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.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 146 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al-Fayha people have started saying his name 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-Fayha can pretend not to have heard.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Mikel Villanueva was one of the reasons people came, and $560.0K does not replace that by itself.
Chris Smalling 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 shirt still fits. Abdullah Aman is back at Al-Fayha, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdulrahman Al-Anazi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Mohammed Al-Essa is in the works
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Fayha will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Al-Ittihad waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Al-Fayha is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
He is going to Al-Hilal, the club has $3.0M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Mohammed Al-Mahasnah 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Al-Shabab waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Al-Fayha is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Al-Shabab had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Add another name to the list: Al-Ahli have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mikel Villanueva. The answer from Al-Fayha has not changed — yet.
Al-Fayha asked and Al-Mojzel said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Ahmed Bamasud 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abdullah Aman will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Fayha the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Add another name to the list: Al-Shoulla have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ahmed Bamasud. The answer from Al-Fayha has not changed — yet.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Chris Smalling 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.
$150.0K on the table at Al-Mojzel. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Mickael Francisco Mendes has, at Al-Fayha, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Olympiacos arrived with $10.1M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Al-Fayha have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Nawaf Al-Harthi had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Fashion Sakala has gone, the accounts have $10.1M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
“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-Fayha can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Chris Smalling 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ahmed Bamasud was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al-Fayha people have started saying his name 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-Fayha 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-Fayha 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Faisaly have kept their man, and Al-Fayha go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Al-Fayha training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmed Bamasud 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 club is not barred from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every name linked with Al-Fayha this window arrives with a name leaving in the same sentence.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdulrahman Al-Anazi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Abdulrahman Al-Anazi is on it.
The least glamorous thing a foreign signing ever does and the one that decides most of them. A player who can hear the shout behind him is a different footballer from one who cannot.
Chris Smalling 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.
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.
Squad24 May 2027
Ahmed Bamasud 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.
Nobody at Al-Fayha 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.
Position 4, 65 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 23 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Al-Fayha have received the call every well-run club eventually receives — somebody bigger has noticed Hassan Al-Otaibi. Saying no is easy; keeping him convinced is the actual work.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Fayha is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdulraouf Al-Duqayl was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Stylianos Vrontis 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Abdulraouf Al-Duqayl trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I want to stay in the game when I stop, and I am not going to wait until I stop to prepare for it.” At 37 the badges have begun, and every manager in the division remembers doing the same.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Fayha 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-Fayha have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Muath Al-Habib will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Fayha the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Chris Smalling 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.
“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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Al-Fayha training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdulrahman Al-Anazi 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 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Malek Al-Abadalmanam trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Al-Fayha the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 51 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-Fayha they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Chris Smalling and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Ahmed Bamasud 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 manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Fashion Sakala is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mohammed Al-Baqawi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
What was a back-page link has become a chant, and the chant is not friendly. Al-Fayha would rather it were settled quietly, and it has stopped being quiet.
Position 4 on 65 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Fayha will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 86th, and Al-Orobah spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Fayha 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 Al-Fayha this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Fayha they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Chris Smalling 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.
14 combined actions and 7.12. 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.
Three points for Al-Fayha, 1‑0 the final word against Al-Batin in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Ahmed Bamasud 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.
“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.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
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.” Hassan Al-Otaibi kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Chances created: 11. Nothing on the scoresheet and everything in the match: the pass before the pass, over and over, until the defence stopped guessing right.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Fashion Sakala provided it, and the 9.41 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 16 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Two goals and a mark of 8.00 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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-Fayha know it.
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. 6.56 beside his name.
7 goals in one match, Stylianos Vrontis on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Al-Fayha and Al-Njoom.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Muath Al-Habib will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Fayha the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Chris Smalling 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.
Marked 6.82 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mohammed Al-Otaibi, and the manager let it.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Al-Fayha training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmed Bamasud 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 dugout22 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Hassan Al-Otaibi to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Fayha they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
1 for Stylianos Vrontis, marked 7.68, 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Stylianos Vrontis 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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Al-Nahda tried to reorganise, Al-Fayha did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Al-Fayha pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Al-Fayha close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 1 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
The phone has started ringing about Mohammed Al-Baqawi again, and this time the name on the line is Al-Ra'ed. Al-Fayha are listening politely and promising nothing.
Chris Smalling 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ohod have kept their man, and Al-Fayha go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Fashion Sakala 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ahmed Bamasud was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
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-Fayha this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Position 6, 33 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Al-Fayha training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ammar Al-Khaibari 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 mark of 7.58, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
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.” Hassan Al-Otaibi kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
Rayyan Enad 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jason. 1‑0 against Al-Batin, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.21 — 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.
Chances created: 13. The column nobody reads carried the whole story of the match, and his name was at the top of it.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Ahmed Bamasud 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 dugout7 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Hassan Al-Otaibi, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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-Fayha this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Muath Al-Habib and Al-Fayha agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Al-Fayha training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Muntathir Al-Shaqaq 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 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.
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Fayha know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
7 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.35 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
1 for Nawaf Al-Harthi, marked 7.66, 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.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Muntathir Al-Shaqaq was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Al-Orobah waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Al-Fayha is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Najran for Rayyan Enad was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“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-Fayha, and it is not being withdrawn.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Hassan Al-Otaibi after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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-Fayha this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Khaled Al-Rammah has come up in conversations Al-Fayha were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Al-Fayha have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Al-Njoom for Ammar Al-Khaibari was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Add another name to the list: Najran have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Rayyan Enad. The answer from Al-Fayha has not changed — yet.
Chris Smalling 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Alfa Semedo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.24. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Al-Hilal waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Al-Fayha is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The phone has started ringing about Sattam Al-Ruqi again, and this time the name on the line is Al-Mojzel. Al-Fayha are listening politely and promising nothing.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Nasser Al-Ahmadi has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Al-Fayha training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdulrahman Al-Anazi 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.
Fashion Sakala has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
What was a back-page link has become a chant, and the chant is not friendly. Al-Fayha would rather it were settled quietly, and it has stopped being quiet.