Caio Lucas 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 Dhafra made Sharjah work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Sharjah training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Santillán 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 deal that would have taken Mayed Saeed to Al Shaab has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Sharjah with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sharjah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Sharjah training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Firas Ben Larbi 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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Sharjah know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sharjah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Still no offer on the table, and Caio Lucas’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
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.
197 appearances across 14 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Caio Lucas 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.