Marked for Houssem Aouar
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Aug 2026
“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.
Market31 Aug 2026
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $2.3M — a club that wants Silvère Ganvoula enough to be asked twice.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Al-Ittihad offered $190.0K; Al-Taawoun said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Al-Ittihad asked and Al Wasl said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad31 Aug 2026
200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Match29 Aug 2026
A 2‑2 draw with Al-Wehda leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Al-Ittihad did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market10 Aug 2026
Standard Liege paid $8.3M and Al-Ittihad took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Al-Ittihad heard it as anything else.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Danilo Pereira and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
“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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Al-Ittihad have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A muscle injury sidelines Faisal Nahet for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Al-Ittihad will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Houssem Aouar 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.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
What was a back-page link has become a chant, and the chant is not friendly. Al-Ittihad would rather it were settled quietly, and it has stopped being quiet.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Al-Ittihad heard it as anything else.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Steven Bergwijn and Al-Ittihad agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Danilo Pereira 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Al-Ittihad
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Houssem Aouar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad3 Aug 2026
5 new faces, and Al-Ittihad 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.