The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al Wahda people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from Zob Ahan for Mohammad Ghorbani 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.
$700.0K on the table at Al Nasr. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $783.2K — a club that wants Hussain Mahdi enough to be asked twice.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Al Wahda has been clear about where Alaeddine Zouhir stands, which is more than many ever get.
Something was said to Adam Gnezda Čerin and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Nobody at Al Wahda 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.
“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 Wahda can pretend not to have heard.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Al Wahda can give him that is a question about the club, not about 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 Wahda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Al Wahda 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al Wahda know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Wahda would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
60 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
“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 Wahda can pretend not to have heard.
Fahad Khalfan 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.
Add another name to the list: Siah Jamegan have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Lautaro Montenegro. The answer from Al Wahda has not changed — yet.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Brahima Diarra has his answer from Al Wahda; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
9 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
A club from his own country has asked the question, and he has never pretended he did not want to be asked. Al Wahda have a conversation ahead of them that they will not win with money.
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 Dušan Tadić is on it.
The words a physio says slowly. 36 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.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Al Wahda have paid $3.9M for Fahad Khalfan, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
$2.4M on the table at Al Jazira. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The chase for Omar Al Suwaidi ended with $2.3M changing hands and Al Ahli out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
“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 Wahda can pretend not to have heard.
Al Wahda had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Al Jazira, 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 Wahda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Fahad Khalfan from Al Ahli for $3.9M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Al Ahli have accepted the money. What Al Wahda do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The deal with Al Jazira 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $2.7M — a club that wants Omar Al Suwaidi enough to be asked twice.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Al Wahda has been clear about where Gastón Suárez stands, which is more than many ever get.
In brief
The dugoutDušan Tadić has become a man the manager trusts
Dušan Tadić 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.
8 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
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 Brahima Diarra trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jadsom signs something — a contract at Al Wahda or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Al Wahda would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“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 Wahda can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Nobody at Al Wahda 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Omar Khribin signs something — a contract at Al Wahda or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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 Wahda, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at Al Wahda and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
Sharjah go through and Al Wahda go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Al Wahda will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.81 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 9 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Jay-Dee Geusens 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.
Dušan Tadić 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.
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 Dušan Tadić is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Moussa Diarra signs something — a contract at Al Wahda or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Al Wahda. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Gerónimo Rivera has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
“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 Wahda, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Rúben Canedo is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Omar Khribin signs something — a contract at Al Wahda or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Jadsom’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
60 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
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 Wahda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Dušan Tadić is on it.
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.
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.
The word out of the training ground is that he has been the sharpest man there all week. It is the quietest story a paper carries and it usually runs the week before somebody's run in the side begins.
Dušan Tadić 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.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Al Wahda prefer.
“I watch every Al Wahda game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al Shabab runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Rúben Canedo is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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 Omar Khribin is on it.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Al Wahda than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
“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 Wahda, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Jay-Dee Geusens 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 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 Abdulla Hamad is on it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Jadsom has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 60 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Two goals and a mark of 8.63 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
1 for Jadsom, marked 7.84, 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.
10 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.
4 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
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.” Khalfan Al Kamali, on a 3‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutAbdalla Ramadan has become a man the manager trusts
8 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.
“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 Wahda know it.
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.
7 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.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.90 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al Wahda can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Marked 8.12 — 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.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Omar Khribin obliged against Al Nasr. 2‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Al Wahda.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
A brace, and Omar Khribin takes the afternoon — 8.73
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Omar Khribin provided it, and the 8.73 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al Wahda have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Wahda know it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.10 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
4 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.
Facundo Kruspzky 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.
A 3‑1 win over Sharjah, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Moussa Diarra was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.40. 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Khalfan Al Kamali on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Position 3, 45 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.53 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
200 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
3 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.
Dušan Tadić 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.
Sharjah next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Jadsom was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.12. 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.
Marked 8.07 — 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.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.98 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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 Christian Benteke.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al Wahda people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 Wahda, and it is not being withdrawn.
7.82, 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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Al Wahda close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 6 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 deal with Al Nasr 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.
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 Wahda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Facundo Kruspzky at his very best
Two goals and a mark of 8.81 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
6 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.
“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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al Wahda have done the hard part with Al Jazira, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Omar Khribin. 3‑1 against Al Ahli, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Al Wahda will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Facundo Kruspzky 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 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.
Al Wahda 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.
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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Gastón Suárez has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
A brace, and Omar Khribin takes the afternoon — 8.76
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Omar Khribin provided it, and the 8.76 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Al Wahda, and it is not being withdrawn.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 10 actions, 6.70, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.25 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Omar Khribin. 2‑1 against Emirates Club, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Favour Ogbu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout14 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.” Khalfan Al Kamali, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al Wahda know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.34 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Al Shabab scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
A 1‑1 draw with Al Shabab leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Khalfan Al Kamali was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Al Wahda dressing room was either.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Bader Nasser'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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al Wahda 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 Wahda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
4 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Dušan Tadić 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 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al Wahda know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Rúben Canedo has written the date down.
19 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
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 Wahda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
With 4 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
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.
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.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Al Wahda prefer.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Moussa Diarra is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout2 Nov 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.” Khalfan Al Kamali, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Chances created: 14. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
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 Wahda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It needed Facundo Kruspzky to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Al Fujairah, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Hazaa Ammar 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Al Dhafra in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
He is 21 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 is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Al Wahda can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Marked 7.44 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
Facundo Kruspzky 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 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.
5 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Al Wahda have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
5 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Khalfan Al Kamali on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Dušan Tadić 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 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.
10 combined actions and 7.44. 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.
“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 Wahda know it.
“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 dugout28 Sep 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.” Khalfan Al Kamali kept it short after the 5‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Dušan Tadić 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.
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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
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 Khalfan Al Kamali 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 Gerónimo Rivera trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Facundo Kruspzky signs something — a contract at Al Wahda or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.40 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Al Wahda offered $130.0K; Al Shaab 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ibrahim Abdulrahman 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.
8.13. 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Khalfan Al Kamali could afford to be generous.
Shots: 7, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Hazaa Ammar 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Dibba is saying, and nobody at Al Wahda is enjoying the guessing.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $4.3M — a club that wants Nasser Al Shamsi enough to be asked twice.
Facundo Kruspzky 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.
Add another name to the list: Al Shaab have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Louay Trayi. The answer from Al Wahda has not changed — yet.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Al Wahda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lautaro Montenegro 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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Al Wahda has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
“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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $159.2K — a club that wants Arshia Sarshogh enough to be asked twice.
Dušan Tadić 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 Wahda have gone to Sharjah 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Faisal Al Bloushi 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Hassan Juma is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“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 Wahda know it.
Squad10 Aug 2026
6 new faces, and Al Wahda 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.
11 seasons and 144 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
“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 Wahda heard it as anything else.
Dušan Tadić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Al Wahda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gerónimo Rivera is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The name of Bernardo Folha has come up in conversations Al Wahda were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.