“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 The request is on a desk at Al-Saudi Al-Watani, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Saudi Al-Watani is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Faisal Al-Subiani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 Mar 2031
Awan Setho 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 shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“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-Saudi Al-Watani can pretend not to have heard.
Faisal Al-Subiani 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 Awan Setho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Tamim Al-Shuqayran signs something — a contract at Al-Saudi Al-Watani or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Al-Saudi Al-Watani would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
“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 The request is on a desk at Al-Saudi Al-Watani, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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-Saudi Al-Watani, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Abdulkarim Sultan signs something — a contract at Al-Saudi Al-Watani or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Al-Saudi Al-Watani could ask drops and the wages Javohir Ubaydullayev can ask rise.
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-Saudi Al-Watani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Mar 2031
Awan Setho 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Al-Saudi Al-Watani, another week without a signature from Ben Melikson.
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.
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.
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Al-Saudi Al-Watani could ask drops and the wages Awan Setho can ask rise.
“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-Saudi Al-Watani, and both men came out saying it was fine.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Al-Saudi Al-Watani can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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-Saudi Al-Watani can pretend not to have heard.
Position 13 on 19 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Saudi Al-Watani they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Faisal Al-Subiani 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
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.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
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 Ben Melikson.
“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-Saudi Al-Watani, and it is not being withdrawn.
Faisal Al-Subiani 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 Awan Setho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Al-Saudi Al-Watani, another week without a signature from Awan Setho.
The dugout17 Feb 2031
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 0‑1 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
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 Abdulkarim Sultan is on it.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al-Riyadh keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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-Saudi Al-Watani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad10 Feb 2031
Awan Setho 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.
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.
“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-Saudi Al-Watani, and it is not being withdrawn.
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Saudi Al-Watani has to find a result from somewhere.
Al-Saudi Al-Watani had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Al-Ahli, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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-Saudi Al-Watani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Awan Setho 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Al-Mojzel waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Al-Saudi Al-Watani is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Al-Wehda is saying, and nobody at Al-Saudi Al-Watani is enjoying the guessing.
Faisal Al-Subiani 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 had been thinking. Awan Setho 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.
Al-Wehda have accepted the money. What Al-Saudi Al-Watani do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Saudi Al-Watani 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-Saudi Al-Watani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Ben Melikson has, at Al-Saudi Al-Watani, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Al-Saudi Al-Watani can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Ra'ed have kept their man, and Al-Saudi Al-Watani go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Awan Setho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Javohir Ubaydullayev has his answer from Al-Saudi Al-Watani; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Al-Saudi Al-Watani, another week without a signature from Awan Setho.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Saudi Al-Watani is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Faisal Al-Subiani 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.
Squad30 Dec 2030
Awan Setho 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.
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.
The dugout30 Dec 2030
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Interim Coach chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Al-Fayha defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Faisal Al-Subiani 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Al-Saudi Al-Watani told Sultan Al-Harbi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Saudi Al-Watani is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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-Saudi Al-Watani 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 Awan Setho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8.07. 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Interim Coach on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
20 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Saudi Al-Watani lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Saudi Al-Watani is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Abdulkarim Sultan 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.
34 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Saudi Al-Watani 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-Saudi Al-Watani have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Awan Setho 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.
Sami Al-Hassan 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 words a physio says slowly. 41 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Saudi Al-Watani is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
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-Saudi Al-Watani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Awan Setho 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-Saudi Al-Watani is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tamim Al-Shuqayran 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Saudi Al-Watani they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Faisal Al-Subiani 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.
Squad4 Nov 2030
Awan Setho 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.
Level with 85 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Al-Saudi Al-Watani had all but put away. Al-Batin will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Faisal Al-Subiani 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.
Squad28 Oct 2030
Awan Setho 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Al-Njoom will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Al-Saudi Al-Watani were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Saudi Al-Watani is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Saudi Al-Watani is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Faisal Al-Subiani 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 Awan Setho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Minute 90, against Al-Diriyah, 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Al-Saudi Al-Watani, another week without a signature from Awan Setho.
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 Faisal Al-Subiani is on it.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Saudi Al-Watani is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Awan Setho 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.
“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-Saudi Al-Watani 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-Saudi Al-Watani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tamim Al-Shuqayran 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 keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Al-Saudi Al-Watani, another week without a signature from Abdulkarim Sultan.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 2‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Saudi Al-Watani is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Faisal Al-Subiani 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.
Squad23 Sep 2030
Awan Setho 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.
Najran go through and Al-Saudi Al-Watani go home, 0‑0 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Two goals and a mark of 8.96 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Player ratings16 Sep 2030
Hassan Al-Sultan, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.36
A mark of 8.36 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.
At 23 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Saudi Al-Watani they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Faisal Al-Subiani 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.
Al-Saudi Al-Watani asked and Al-Ittihad said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Saudi Al-Watani lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
8 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 given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom2 Sep 2030
Deadline passes with 25 signed and 21 gone
That is the business done at Al-Saudi Al-Watani 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.
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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Saudi Al-Watani have done the hard part with Al-Fateh, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Abdulkarim Sultan 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.
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Saudi Al-Watani lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
1‑5 to Al-Jeel, 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.
7 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ahmed Al-Khaibari will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Saudi Al-Watani the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Ahmed Al-Khaibari has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Faisal Al-Subiani 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.
$20.0K on the table at Najran. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Saudi Al-Watani lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Saudi Al-Watani is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
At 23 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.
$330.0K was the most the club would pay and Al-Ahli were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Ittihad have kept their man, and Al-Saudi Al-Watani go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
50 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Saudi Al-Watani lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Al-Mojzel waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Al-Saudi Al-Watani is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The deal with Al-Ettifaq is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The offer went to Al-Ra'ed this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The offer went to Damac this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
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-Saudi Al-Watani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Al-Saudi Al-Watani asked and Najran said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Awan Setho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Al-Saudi Al-Watani is running low.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Saudi Al-Watani they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The clubs have shaken hands with Al-Ettifaq; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
At 23 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.
Al-Saudi Al-Watani had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Damac, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Abdulmajeed Al-Enezi has agreed terms with Al-Ra'ed for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Al-Saudi Al-Watani have gone to Al-Ta'ee with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Faisal Al-Subiani 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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Omer Zaguri will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Saudi Al-Watani the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Al-Hazem is saying, and nobody at Al-Saudi Al-Watani is enjoying the guessing.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Omer Zaguri has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Al-Saudi Al-Watani have gone to Damac with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Abdulkarim Sultan 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.
Al-Saudi Al-Watani asked and Al-Ra'ed said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Awan Setho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Yasser Al-Dosari has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Faisal Al-Subiani 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.
Squad1 Jul 2030
Awan Setho 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.
Fahad Al-Otaibi is 18, and Al-Saudi Al-Watani have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Al-Saudi Al-Watani, another week without a signature from Abdulmajeed Al-Enezi.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Al-Saudi Al-Watani would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
“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-Saudi Al-Watani, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Damac keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Faisal Al-Subiani 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Shabab have kept their man, and Al-Saudi Al-Watani go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Awan Setho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Tamim Al-Shuqayran signs something — a contract at Al-Saudi Al-Watani or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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-Saudi Al-Watani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Fahad Al-Enezi is living that version at Al-Saudi Al-Watani, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Awan Setho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Al-Saudi Al-Watani, another week without a signature from Awan Setho.
Fahad Al-Enezi is 20, and Al-Saudi Al-Watani have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The words a physio says slowly. 50 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.
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-Saudi Al-Watani 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 Tamim Al-Shuqayran was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Al-Saudi Al-Watani can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Position 15 on 15 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“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-Saudi Al-Watani can pretend not to have heard.
Faisal Al-Subiani 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.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Amjad Takrouni will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Saudi Al-Watani the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tamim Al-Shuqayran was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
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 Faisal Al-Subiani is on it.
“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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Salman Al-Matar provided it, and the 8.13 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Saudi Al-Watani is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Abdulkarim Sultan 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.
Al-Saudi Al-Watani asked and Al-Shabab said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tamim Al-Shuqayran 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.
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Saudi Al-Watani has to find a result from somewhere.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 53 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“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-Saudi Al-Watani can pretend not to have heard.
Everything agreed with Al-Riyadh, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Jackson Izquierdo 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.
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Saudi Al-Watani lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Saudi Al-Watani will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Sanele Sikhosana provided it, and the 9.08 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 9 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fahad Al-Obaid 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.
Sami Al-Hassan 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.
38 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Saudi Al-Watani lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Saudi Al-Watani will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 8 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Faisal Al-Subiani 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.
35 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Saudi Al-Watani lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Saudi Al-Watani will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
0-5, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
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.
Jackson Izquierdo 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.
42 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Saudi Al-Watani lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout12 Nov 2029
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 0‑3 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Awan Setho trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ahmad Ghoddos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 49 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.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
56 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Saudi Al-Watani lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ativeer Jain was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Al-Saudi Al-Watani 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.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
77 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Saudi Al-Watani lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Saudi Al-Watani they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
6 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 afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
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-Saudi Al-Watani 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 Fahad Al-Obaid was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
84 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Saudi Al-Watani lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Saudi Al-Watani has to find a result from somewhere.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Al-Saudi Al-Watani told Sanele Sikhosana something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ativeer Jain was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 words a physio says slowly. 91 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.
At 22 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.
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-Saudi Al-Watani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$41.0K was the most the club would pay and Al-Fateh were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Al-Saudi Al-Watani can tell you which week it ends in.
98 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Saudi Al-Watani lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
“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-Saudi Al-Watani, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Qadisiyah have kept their man, and Al-Saudi Al-Watani go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Saad Al-Dosari is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Saad Al-Subaie is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Salem Al-Sulami is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
105 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Saudi Al-Watani lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Saudi Al-Watani is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Sultan Al-Sawadi 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 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 it has been tried.
The words a physio says slowly. 43 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.
1‑4 to Al-Ettifaq, 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 Al-Saudi Al-Watani, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Saudi Al-Watani have done the hard part with Al-Shoulla, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Faisal Al-Subiani 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.
Al-Saudi Al-Watani have gone to Al-Fateh with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
10 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates 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-Saudi Al-Watani, and it is not being withdrawn.
Sultan Al-Sawadi 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.
Al-Saudi Al-Watani asked and Al-Fateh said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Al-Njoom will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Mohammed Asiri has pre-agreed a move to Al-Saudi Al-Watani, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Al-Saudi Al-Watani are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Al-Saudi Al-Watani know it, and so does everybody who watches him.